194 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



It was a great lift getting his body on board, we hooked the 

 chain of the winch round its neck, let on steam, and up it 

 came to the boom on the foremast, and hung dripping over 

 the deck. 



I will here quote a line or two from Scoresby's book on 

 Greenland. He was the wonderful combination of almost 

 a self-made man, a recognised authority as a scientist and 

 splendid whaler. 



I make this quotation to give some weight to the serious 

 side of polar bear hunting. Nowadays it is rather the 

 fashion to minimise dangers on land or sea. And in the time 

 of Scoresby it was also more or less the fashion, but he frankly 

 says : "I do not try to minimise the risks of sea life and 

 whaling," and he gives due thanks to his Maker for many 

 hair-breadth escapes which we to-day might put down too 

 much to our own efforts and straight powder. 



"When the bear is found in the water," he continues, 

 " crossing from one sheet of ice to another, it may generally 

 be attacked with advantage ; but when on the shore, or 

 more especially when it is upon a large sheet of ice, covered 

 with snow on which the bear, supporting itself on the surface, 

 with its extended paws, can travel with twice the speed of a 

 man, who perhaps sinks to the knee at every step it can 

 seldom be assailed with either safety or success. Most of the 

 fatal accidents that have occurred with bears have been the 

 result of rencounters on the ice, or injudicious attacks made 

 at such disadvantage." 



I am inclined to think that each person feels differently 

 about approaching a bear on the ice ; depending on tempera- 

 ment and age. Personally I feel a faint chill such as you 

 have before diving off a rock into the sea, and after success 

 something of the glow you have after you come out. But I 

 rather think that younger people have a similar sensation 

 before and after, only stronger. In fact, so strong as at 

 first to make them a little pale, to upset their aim, and 

 afterwards to make them gloriously jubilant. 



The naked feeling, I am sure, is there, clothes and ordinary 

 surroundings are of no account, there is the snow, the sky, 



