364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



females began to take their places ready for laying their eggs, 

 and on June 20th three eggs were obtained. 



"Foxes were constantly troubling us during the winter, 

 corning right up to the door after blubber, and would only run a 

 few yards when anybody went out to drive them off; we were 

 obliged to shoot some at last, as they became almost tame. Bears 

 were more numerous whilst we had the water close outside the 

 land-ice ; they would come walking along the edge of the land-ice, 

 and when they got scent of the house would walk right up to it. 

 During the dark we killed four or five every month, except 

 November ; but we saw on an average two a week. One moon- 

 light night, in November, there were five or six Bears within four 

 hundred yards of the house, but we could not get a shot at any of 

 them, unless we kept very still until the Bear came up to the 

 house. We never shot a female Bear from October to March 13th. 

 This is an important fact. They were always very large males. 

 Several times, on examining the contents of the stomachs, we 

 found them full of nothing but grass, but in spring they generally 

 had been feeding on Seals, and more than once we obtained a 

 good bucketful of oil for cooking purposes out of a Bear's 

 stomach. Once a Bear had eaten a large piece of greasy canvas 

 which had been thrown away, and had been blown some two or 

 three hundred yards from the house ; he then came up to the 

 house and commenced to eat our blubber, but was immediately 

 shot. On February 20th a Bear was seen about 350 feet above 

 the hill at the back of the house. Some hands went up with a 

 rifle, and found that it had a hole there, out of which they could 

 not get it, fortunately for them, as they had only one rifle with 

 them, and that would not go off, the lock having been frozen : 

 we saw no young one with it. The last time this Bear was 

 seen at its hole was on March 1st. No track could be traced 

 up the hill, but the footmarks of an old Bear and a cub were 

 seen on the low land, about 300 yards to the eastward of the 

 house. No old she Bears with young cubs were seen before we 

 left the land in June. 



"In July, 1881, on nearing Cape Crowther, Walruses were 

 seen lying on loose pieces of ice in great numbers. Sometimes 

 twenty or more were counted, huddled up in a heap on a small 

 piece of ice. By going quietly in a boat you could get within 

 twenty or thirty yards of them before they took much notice of 



