THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 650 



companion wounded her with a Webster rifle, but even this pro- 

 duced little or no effect, for she contined tearing down barrels 

 of beef which made triple walls to the store-house, and thus 

 mounting the rubbish, seized a keg of herrings and made off. 

 Reaching the ice, however, the bear was again beset with dogs, 

 which worried her by running around and snapping at her heels, 

 until, to ward off her enemies, she again came to bay, and as be- 

 fore, placed the cub between her hind-feet and bade defiance. 

 More guns were brought, with which she was dispatched only 

 after six more bullets had pierced her body. When dressed, she 

 proved to be exceedingly lean, and without a particle of food in 

 her stomach. But bears furnish much more palatable food when 

 in a lean condition than when fat, for the impregnation of fatty 

 oil through the cellular tissues makes a well-fed bear nearly un- 

 eatable. 



ANOTHER BATTLE WITH A BEAR. 



SOME members of Dr. Kane's expedition had another exciting 

 contest with a bear and her cubs, while journeying by sledge to- 

 ward Cape Jackson. Upon being pursued, the bear fled, but the 

 little ones, being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs or to 

 keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her head under 

 their haunches, threw them some distance forward. The cubs, 

 safe for the moment, she w r ould wheel round and face the dogs, 

 so as to give them a chance to run away ; but they always stopped 

 just as they alighted, till she came up and threw them ahead 

 again ; they seemed to expect her aid, and would notsroon with- 

 out it. Sometimes the mother would run a few yards ahead, as 

 if to coax the young ones up to her, and when the dogs came up 

 she would turn on them and drive them back; then, as the} 7 

 dodged her blows, she would rejoin the cubs and push them on, 

 sometimes putting her head under them, sometimes catching 

 them in her mouth by the nape of the neck. 



For a time she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving 

 the men far in the rear. They had engaged her on the land- 

 ice ; but she led the dogs in-shore, up a small stony valley 

 which opened into the interior. After she had gone a mile 



