THE GERMAN EXPEDITION (1869) 83 



silent in the cabin, when Koldewey suddenly heard a faint 

 cry for help. We all hurriedly tumbled up the com- 

 panion-ladder to the deck, when an exclamation from 

 Borgen, ' A bear is carrying me off ! , struck painfully on 

 our ears. 



" It was quite dark ; we could scarcely see anything, 

 but we made directly for the quarter whence the cry 

 proceeded, armed with poles, weapons, etc., over hum- 

 mocks and drifts, when an alarm-shot, which we fired in 

 the air, seemed to make some little impression, as the 

 bear dropped his prey and ran forward a few paces. 

 He turned again, however, dragging his victim over the 

 broken shore-ice, close to a field which stretched in a 

 southerly direction. All depended upon our coming up 

 with him before he could reach this field, as he would 

 carry his prey over the open plain with the speed of a 

 horse, and thus escape. We succeeded. The bear turned 

 upon us for a moment, and then, scared by our continuous 

 fire, let fall his prey. 



" We lifted our poor comrade up on to the ice, to bear 

 him to his cabin — a task which was rendered somewhat 

 difficult by the slippery and uneven surface of the ice. 

 But after we had gone a little way, Borgen implored us 

 to make as much haste as possible. On procuring a light, 

 the coldest nature would have been shocked at the 

 spectacle which poor Borgen presented. The bear had 

 torn his scalp in several places, and he had received several 

 injuries in other parts of his body. His clothes and hair 

 were saturated with blood. We improvised a couch for 

 him in the rear of our own cabin, as his own was not 

 large enough. 



" The first operation was performed upon him on the 

 cabin table. And here we may briefly notice the singular 

 fact that, although he had been carried more than 100 

 paces with his skull almost laid bare, at a temperature of 



