404 FARTHEST NORTH 



We made a wide circuit round them, and began to drive 

 them towards the land, one of us on each side of them, 

 It was easy to make them go in whatever direction we 

 wanted, and Johansen could not say enough in praise of 

 this simple method of getting bears from one place to 

 another. We did not need to row hard to keep up with 

 them ; we went slowly and easily, but surely, towards 

 land. We saw several walruses in the vicinity, but fort- 

 unately escaped being attacked by any of them. F'rom 

 the very first it was evident how much better the bear 

 that first went into the water swam, although it was the 

 smallest and thinnest. It waited, however, patiently for 

 the other, and kept it company ; but at last the pace of 

 the latter became too slow for its companion, who struck 

 out for the shore, the distance between the two orowino' 

 greater and greater. They had kept incessantly turning 

 their heads to look anxiously at us, and now the one that 

 was left behind looked round even more helplessly than 

 before. While I set off after the first bear, Johansen 

 w^atched the second, and we drove them ashore by our 

 den, and shot them there. 



We had thus taken three bears on that day, and this 

 was a good set-off against our walruses, which had 

 drifted out to sea, and, what was no less fortunate, we 

 found the sunken walrus from the day before tioating 

 just at the edge of the shore. We lost no time in towing 

 it into a place of safety in a creek and making it fast. It 

 made a difference to our winter store. 



