ESCAPE OF THE YOUNG- BEAES. 261 



the cook were ashore, they had taken the 

 opportunity to eat through the rotten drift- 

 wood composing their cage, and to break out 

 on deck. The cook, hearing the scuflOing of 

 their feet, came up and attempted to drive 

 them in again, but they completely got the 

 better of him, and compelled him to make a 

 precipitate retreat to the masthead for security. 

 They then added insult to injury, and still 

 further embittered the cook's feelings, by de- 

 vouring great part of a haunch of fat venison 

 which was hanging on deck ready for dinner. 

 Finally, and we may suppose after a facetious 

 grin at the cook aloft, they clambered over the 

 side and swam ashore. Their triumph, however, 

 was not of long duration, for the rest of the 

 crew accidentally met them coolly travelling 

 along the shore in the evening ; and although 

 at first they were nearly shooting them for 

 wild bears, at last it occurred to them, from 

 there being no old one with them, that they 

 were their young shipmates trying to escape ; 

 so they pursued and recaptured them, but not 

 until after a most severe struggle, in the 

 course of which one or two of the men got 

 severely bitten by the young demons, who 



S 3 



