HOW ACCOUNTED FOR. 245 



hurt them*, in tlieir previous blissful existences. 

 Neither does tlie report of a rifle mucb. alarm 

 tbem ; but that is more easily understood, as 

 they are no doubt accustomed to hearing the 

 cracking of the glaciers and the noises caused 

 by the splitting of rocks from the frost in 

 winter. 



On one occasion Lord David Kennedy found 

 a troop of five deer, and obtaining a concealed 

 position within shot of them, he knocked over 

 four of them with a round from his four- 

 barrelled rifle ; the survivor then stood snufiing 

 his dead companions until Kennedy had time 

 to load one barrel, and to consummate this 

 unparalleled sporting feat by polishing him off 

 likewise. 



Another time we broke one of the fore-feet 

 of an old fat stag from an unseen ambush ; his 

 companions ran away, and the wounded deer, 

 after making some attempts to follow them, 

 which the softness of the ground and his own 

 corpulence prevented him from doing, looked 

 about him a little, and then, seeing nothing, he 



* There are no wolves in Spitzbergen ; and I am inclined 

 to doubt -whether the Polar bear ever meddles with the 

 rein-deer, unless he may fall in with a sick or wounded 

 individual near the sea-shore. 



B 3 



