HOW WE HUNT POLAR BEARS 295 



aim quickly and fired. The bullet, a .30-.30, hit the 

 bear in the right foreleg, and knocked that member from 

 under him, so that he turned a complete somersault into 

 the water. It was at this juncture that I snapped a pic- 

 ture, but it was not a success. When the bear came to 

 the surface all thought of visiting us had vanished; his 

 only idea now was to escape. 



"By this time, however, the Commander had unstrapped 

 his rifle case and reached his rifle, which he had oiled and 

 put away an hour before. The bear was wounded, and, 

 while it might never menace our dogs again, it would be 

 better to end its misery. So the Commander fired with 

 his hard-shooting Gibbs-Mannlicher rifle as the now 

 thoroughly frightened King of the Arctic clambered out 

 upon the ice and started to limp away. This bullet 

 knocked him over, but he got up again and in spite of 

 a second hit from Storkerson's rifle, he disappeared be- 

 hind a pressure ridge and was lost to view, leaving a broad 

 trail of blood. 



"During the excitement, as we now noticed, the lead had 

 narrowed so much that Crawford and I with the .30-.30 

 rifle and the camera, were able to cross with the aid of a 

 pair of skis and a long pole. We followed the trail of 

 blood at a run, expecting at every turn to come upon the 

 wounded animal, but we had proceeded almost half a 

 mile before we saw him staggering along, holding his right 

 foot clear of the ice. When he realized that he was being 

 followed, he plunged into the first water he came to. It 

 would be a simpler matter — so I thought — for Crawford 

 to place a bullet in a vital place when the bear came to the 

 surface. Three hasty shots inflicted only flesh wounds, 

 however, and Crawford found that he had no more cart- 

 ridges. I was about to run back to camp for more when 



