FEROCITY OF YOUNG BEAR. 151 



ing skulls of bears and walruses all the afternoon. 

 The latter process is a decidedly unpopular occu- 

 pation, which is not to be wondered at, as it is very 

 cold and tedious work, and they are so averse to 

 begin that they generally leave the skulls until they 

 are in a state which certainly can not add to the 

 pleasure of the operator. 



Our cargo altogether is beginning to get so ex- 

 ceedingly high, that the chloride of lime is quite 

 overpowered or extinguished by the effluvium, and 

 we are compelled to have recourse to the refine- 

 ment of burning pastilles in the cabin before we 

 lie down to sleep. Fancy pastilles in a sealing 

 vessel ! 



30th. Our young white bears have now become 

 brown, and are in a fair way to become black with 

 dirt, and tar, and grease, so we took them out to- 

 day, and, tying the end of a rope round their mid- 

 dles, we gave them each a swim, or, to speak more 

 correctly, a tow behind the vessel, to clean them ; 

 one of them, the female, is quiet and peaceable 

 enough, but the other is the most ferocious and ir- 

 reclaimable young demon I ever saw in my life. 

 He was so savage and tyrannical toward his sister 

 that we built a sort of partition in their crib, and 

 since that he has devoted his entire energies, with 

 hardly any intermission, by day or by night, to 

 roaring and growling, while he bites and scratches 

 at the rotten drift-wood composing the cage in an 

 equally persevering manner ; we found to-day that 



