4^6 FARTHEST NORTH 



the best of the fat upon ahnost every single piece ; then 

 it had gathered the blubber together again in another 

 place, and then, happy with the happiness of satiety, 

 had lain down to sleep upon it, perhaps so as to have 

 it handy when it woke up again. Previous to attack- 

 ing the blubber-heap it had accomplished another piece 

 of work, which we only discovered later on. It had 

 killed both the young bears that had been visiting us ; 

 we found them not far off, with broken skulls and frozen 

 stiff. We could see by the footprints how it had run 

 after them out over the new ice, first one and then the 

 other, and had dragged them on land, and laid them 

 down without touching them again. What pleasure it 

 can have in doing this I do not understand, but it must 

 have regarded them as competitors in the struggle for 

 food. Or was it, perhaps, a cross old gentleman who 

 did not like young people } " It is so nice and quiet 

 here now," said the ogre, when he had cleared the 

 country. 



Our winter store now began quite to inspire confi- 

 dence. 



At length, on the evening of that day, we moved into 

 our new hut ; but our first night there was a cold one. 

 Hitherto we had slept in one bag all the time, and even 

 the one we had made by sewing together our two blank- 

 ets had been fairly adequate. But now we thought it 

 would not be necessary to sleep in one bag any longer, 

 as we should make the hut so warm by burning train-oil 



