THE WINTER NIGHT 287 



and Johansen, and made straight for them. By this 

 time Henriksen had got his gun, but it missed fire 

 several times. He has an unfortunate Hkinor for smear- 

 ing the lock so well with vaseline that the spring works 

 as if it lay in soft soap. At last it went off, and the ball 

 went throuQ^h the bear's back and breast in a slantine 

 direction. The animal stood up on its hind-legs, fought 

 the air with its fore-paws, then flung itself forward and 

 sprang off, to fall after about 30 steps ; the ball had 

 grazed the heart. It was not till the shot went off that 

 Hansen saw the bear, and then he rushed up and put 

 two revolver -balls into its head. It was a large bear, 

 the largest we had got yet. 



"About midday I was in the crow's-nest. In spite of 

 the clear weather I could not discover land on any side. 

 The opening far to the north has quite disappeared ; but 

 during the night a large new one has formed quite close 

 to us. It stretches both north and south, and has now a 

 covering of ice. The pressure is chiefly confined to the 

 edges of this opening, and can be traced in walls of 

 packed ice as far as the horizon in both directions. To 

 the east the ice is quite unbroken and fiat. We have 

 lain just in the worst pressure. 



"Thursday, October 19th. The ice again slackened 

 a little last night. In the morning I attempted a drive 

 with six of the dogs. When I had managed to harness 

 them to the Samoyede sledge, had seated myself on it, 

 and called ' Pr-r-r-r, pr-r-r-r !' they went off in quite good 



