202 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



and white, just as I used to have from engravings, and which 

 it is very difficult to put aside. North Polar and South 

 Polar regions are essentially places of very high-toned deli- 

 cate colour, almost the only black is what you bring with you ; 

 mother-of-pearl and birch-bark tints you have, and grimness 

 there is in dead earnest, dangers and minor discomforts, but 

 it's all in lovely colour in high note. 



It is my watch and Gisbert's to-night, but I am going to 

 turn in after writing this ; two nights without sleep make 



one feel inclined 

 to ride out this 

 gale behind a floe 

 in one's bunk 

 pipe, matches and 

 book, and practice 

 chanter, all within 

 arm's-length, and 

 jolly comfortable it 

 is; for, as Marcus 

 Aurelius puts it : 

 " If a man can live 

 in a palace, he can 

 live there well." 



I forgot to say 

 we got our Bruin 

 on board, after a 

 terrible fight and 

 some blood lost, 



human and bear's. We got a strop round his waist 

 when we had pulled him alongside with the lasso, and 

 hauled him up in the air by the steam-winch, the chain 

 and hook fast in the strop. I think this little drawing 

 explains the method ; it's a most kindly and considerate treat- 

 ment. I mention this to ease the mind of some people who 

 concluded that a picture in this book of a bear hung by the 

 head was a live bear being lifted on board instead of being 

 a bear that had been shot for an attempt on our lives on the 

 ice. Whalers and sealers and bear-hunters I have found 



