304 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



instantly came out and tore the cage to smithereens, and 

 out he came, and, evidently to his great content, wallowed 

 about in the sea and washed his face, and took a dive or two 

 and rubbed his paws, saying "Be-waugh " and "B-e-a-r" 

 frequently, and looked perfectly happy and amiable. Just 

 to prevent him swimming ashore and going into the fish- 

 market, we put a stout little rope round his neck, and he 

 continued to enjoy his bath, whilst we made ready a new 

 cage, each batten of which is covered with sheet iron on the 

 inside and has the appearance of strength which I should de- 

 sire for such an opening ceremony as I have above suggested, 

 if I have to be present. When this cage was in order, our 

 duty was to get the big strop or ring of heavy rope round his 

 waist, so as to haul him out of his bath with our sixty-horse- 

 power winch, and this was done with some escape of steam 

 and some splashing and profuse remarks from the bear. 

 Now he is in his new quarters, into which he cannot get his 

 teeth, and he ruminates peacefully and eats and drinks what 

 is given him. I wonder what his teeth will go into when he 

 first comes out. 



Christabel and William we are selling for much moneys 

 by telegraph to a certain millionaire. They will make 

 charming pets and William, as already mentioned, promises to 

 be a musician as well, but they will never attain, in captivity, 

 to the size that Port and Starboard may be expected to 

 attain, for the latter have already spent several years on the 

 floes eating seal galore. 



Bears have gone up in price; very few have lately been 

 landed, as far as we can hear, hi Northern Europe. Recent 

 years have been rather bad for expeditions. We know of 

 several which have been wrecked; some of the crews are 

 dead. 1 Gisbert is going to hang on with the Fonix at 

 Tromso and may go North again in search of survivors. 



Slipping down the Norwegian coast amongst the islands 

 in a passenger steamer feels very luxurious after being in 

 such a small vessel with always a certain amount of risk ; 



1 1 have learned since that five vessels came to grief in the year 1913. 

 Of one trip (Stefansen's) only one man has survived. 



