THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 635 



been two or three like him they could have held the bear without 

 the slightest danger to themselves. 



It seems that in Nome where Emiu had learned his dog-driving 

 from white men it is generally the custom to re-name Eskimo dogs 

 with white men's names. The rest of us rather preferred when we 

 bought a dog to let him keep his Eskimo name but Emiu felt 

 otherwise. He gave the name "Jack" or "Brownie" or "Towser" to 

 everj^ dog that he had anything to do with. He had been driving 

 this dog and now his name was Tip. 



Tip was not in the least excited. He did not even bark. If the 

 bear faced in his direction, he would make a strategic retreat and 

 keep a distance of at least five yards. But the moment the bear 

 turned away towards another dog, he would run up and nip him 

 in the heel, not viciously as an excited dog might have done, but 

 sharply and skilfully like a good workman vt once confident in his 

 skill and proud of it. These bites were evidently painful, for 

 the bear always turned quickly but he never could turn quite 

 quickly enough to get a blow at Tip, who by then was standing so 

 far away and looking so unconcerned that the bear apparently 

 was in doubt which dog to blame. But Tip had no efficient sup- 

 port. The other dogs barked a great deal and then approached 

 from the wrong aspect so that several of them had narrow escapes 

 from the paws. 



All this was not half so long in the doing as it has taken me to 

 tell it and was seen besides from a distance. I had to get nearer 

 for firing to be sure not to hit a dog, for one or another was con- 

 tinually on the far side. At a hundred yards I lay down and 

 watched my chance, and when the dogs were momentarily out of 

 the way sent the final shot. 



The bear fell perhaps half a mile away from where Sapsuk 

 had fallen. Sapsuk was no longer in sight but there was no dif- 

 ficulty in following the bear's blood trail back to where he lay. 

 On his skin the wound showed as two or three deep scratches but 

 the blow had struck in the small of the back and his hind legs were 

 paralyzed. I felt him over carefully and could not see that any 

 bones were broken so that the case did not appear fatal. We 

 camped right there for the night and I made him a comfortable 

 bed of the bear's skin. The next morning he was unable to stand 

 up but appeared otherwise so well that we began to hope for him. 

 Accordingly we made him a nest in Emiu's sled and took him 

 along. 



Our course was taking us much too far east, so we traveled west 



