CHAPTER LIII 



THE DISCOVERY OF LOUGHEED ISLAND 



I DID not want to break into the continuity of the story about 

 King Christian Island till it had been finally disposed of. Now 

 ' comes a diary record for July 22nd, which I reproduce in so 

 far as it relates to an incident of that evening: 



"New bear habits, so far as my experience goes, came to light 

 to-night. We are camped by a lead about five yards wide which 

 we had to follow S x E one mile (stopped then for longitude obser- 

 vations). When Noice and I had both gone indoors and Charlie 

 was about to come in, he noticed something resembling a chunk of 

 ice move rapidly across the lead a hundred yards south (wind 

 about west, or a little south of west). He saw by the glasses this 

 was the eyes, ears and nose of a bear. The bear had evidently 

 seen us first and when I came out he had commenced a careful 

 stalk of us. He would swim along eight or ten yards, then stop 

 dead and slowly raise his eyes (and ears, for that he could not help) 

 over the edge of the lead and look, but only high enough to see 

 my head — I was behind the sled, resting my elbows on the load, 

 and Charlie was holding the dogs, while Noice was at the bow of 

 the sled, a little lower than I. The dogs never saw him, though 

 they had a full view of that part of the lead where he was. 



"It took him about ten minutes to come a hundred yards. 

 When nearly opposite our tent and about fifteen yards from us, 

 he slowly raised his forequarters upon the ice which was about six 

 inches over water level. Then swiftly but without a splash or 

 other noise he brought his hindquarters up and made a dash 

 straight for me. I had told Noice to shoot him as soon as he 

 was well clear of the lead, but he was coming so fast I did not 

 care to take a chance on one of our guns alone, which might fail 

 to go off — or else the bullet might not hit. I therefore fired simul- 

 taneously with Noice. 



"At first I thought he was mortally wounded and probably he 

 was, but after rolling on his back he half got up, facing the water. 

 As it is difficult to haul a dead bear out of water, I told Noice to 



537 



