48o FARTHEST NORTH 



had abundance of food ; but we thought it would be 

 amusing to go nearer and watch them, and then, if 

 possible, frighten them sufficiently to keep them from 

 visiting us in the night, so that we could sleep in peace. 

 When we approached, the mother snorted angrily, turned 

 several times as if to go, pushing the young one on first, 

 but turned back again to observe us more closely. At 

 last they jogged slowly off, continually hesitating and 

 looking back. When they got down to the shore, they 

 again went quite slowly among the hummocks, and I ran 

 after them. The mother went first, the young one trotting 

 after exactly in her footsteps. I was soon close to them, 

 the mother saw me, started, and tried to get the young 

 one to go with her; but I now discovered that it could 

 run no faster than I could follow it. As soon as the 

 mother saw this, she turned round, snorted, and came 

 storming right at me. I halted, and prepared to shoot 

 in case she should come too near, and in the meantime 

 the little one tramped on as fast as it could. The moth- 

 er halted at the distance of a few paces from me, snorted 

 and hissed again, looked round at the young one, and 

 when the latter had got a good way on trotted after it. 

 I ran on again and overtook the young one, and again 

 the mother went through the same manceux-res ; she 

 seemed to have the greatest possible desire to strike me 

 to the earth, but then the young one had again got 

 ahead a little, and she did not wait to do it, but trotted 

 after. This was repeated several times, and then they 



