WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 227 



Whales at last in our night watch ! I must write 

 my notes about them before I turn in. Some people say 

 whaling is not sport. I differ from them. It is the best 

 sport I know. We had bear and whale in the same basket 

 to-night, first a cast for a whale which went off, and then 

 immediately after a shot at a bear which we got, and then 

 another whale, which we got also, both within two hours. 

 Certainly though it was only a narwhal the whale was the 

 best sport. 



We lie in a small bay the length of our small vessel, which 

 is one hundred and ten feet in length, and to our left hand 

 there is a bigger bay in the floe, about two hundred yards 

 wide, and narwhals have appeared in it. So we dropped 

 our whale-boat with the harpoon-gun loaded and put the 

 line in order. This, of course, should have been all in order 

 and ready, so time was lost. Then we tumbled on board by 

 the port chains and rowed down to where the whales had 

 last appeared ; and waited for them to come up again. 



It blew a little with cold, fine snow. As we waited some- 

 one on board shouted " A bear ! " and we cast our eyes down 

 wind to the ice-floe and got a glimpse of pale primrose 

 passing amongst hummocks ; and very quickly we got 

 the harpoon out of the gun and backed down as fast as 

 possible, getting into a bit of a sea, and as we approached 

 the floe I got two 475 shells into the rifle. As we came 

 within fifty yards up came Bruin, making towards us. 

 It was very difficult to hold straight, for the sea was 

 breaking in foam and the boat was tossed about amongst 

 chunks of ice, so I held on and on, wishing to make 

 sure up and down we went, and round went the muzzle 

 of the rifle, but still the bear came on, as if he wanted to 

 board us. So lest he should change his mind and bolt, I 

 let loose at about eight yards and tried to hit the middle 

 of its chest, but I was a trifle off and hit the point of his 

 starboard shoulder with such a heavy rifle and big ball 

 and cartridge we would have expected to knock him over, 

 but it only turned it ! The second barrel hit him a little 

 high and back of the shoulder, and he tumbled out of sight 

 over a hummock. So we made wild jumps on to broken ice 



