WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 243 



inclined to wish yourself at home. You think of what will 

 happen if your foot sticks in the deep snow or if you miss 

 with your next, or only wound it. The size and shape of 

 these wild floe-bred bears is far greater than any one may see 

 in captivity. I suppose the age of the males, their food, and 

 free life account for their enormous chest measurements 

 and huge bowed forelegs. 



It is certainly best to attack a bear in couples, on account 

 of above-mentioned possibilities lives have been lost by not 

 doing so. 



As we turned in, the mist rose a little and left a streak of 

 palest primrose between it and the horizon, the shape of a 

 great searchlight, but how delicate was the warm violet of 

 the mist and the darker tint on the smooth water. In other 

 ten minutes the light increased, then the sky was faintest 

 yellow, except a low arch of cold bluish tint above the floe 

 to which we were anchored ; on the floe were three small 

 icebergs. 



Where we are to-night there is little life, only a few petrels 

 chuckling quietly at our stern, where there is always some 

 blubber hanging over for their benefit. 



There is not a ripple on the sea, not the slightest perceptible 

 motion. I think the stillness and silence of the Arctic is a 

 thing seldom noticed ; the hundreds of miles of drifting 

 floes which surround us break all swell. Everyone sleeps 

 to-night after the exertions of yesterday. If there is a watch 

 on deck I do not hear him ; in my cabin the only sound is the 

 snoring of our starboard bear. His berth is close to mine ; 

 when he does not snore he growls, a deep vibrating organ 

 note, which is a little fearsome, and when he stops the deep 

 note there is an ominous scrape, scraping in the stillness, 

 that shows his set purpose to get out, and what ? I wish 

 he was overboard or in our Zoo, or behind iron bars or some- 

 thing stronger than fir- wood battens, which he tears into 

 moss in no time ! A rat tearing wood is vexatious in the 

 silence of the night, but to hear the patient and effective 

 work going on beside one when you know there is possibly 

 no one on the look-out, makes one anxious, so I keep my 

 pistol handy at meal-times and between them. 



