466 THE FRANKLIN SEABCff— 184:8-51. 



ice with the utmost indifference and ease. Our hunters — Indians are always 

 excellent marksmen — now paid him some attention ; they hit him several 

 times, but did not succeed in turning him. He attempted at last to swim 

 to seaward, and would doubtless have succeeded but for a new opponent. 

 One of the Eskimos, launching his kayak, followed the bear, and at close 

 proximity discharged arrow after arrow into his body. This was the most 

 exciting part of the hunt. Each time that an arrow pierced his body, the poor 

 animal seized the missile, if within reach, in his teeth, and strove to wrench 

 it from the wound, generally, however, breaking it short. Then would it 

 turn fiercely on its persecutor, who, skilfully manoeuvring his light boat, 

 hung at two or three yards distance only on his rear ; so close were they 

 indeed, that the man deliberately splashed water with his double-bladed paddle 

 into poor Bruin's face, just backing gently to be clear of his paws, a single 

 stroke from which would quite have reversed the fortune of the combat. 

 When, after a hunt which lasted about four hours, the animal received its 

 final death-stroke by a baU through the brain from the 'Logan,' he was 

 stuck all over with arrows, and looked like a barbecued pig. By the laws 

 of savage venery, first blood always decides the captor, and the Eskimo 

 readily recognised the rule in the present instance, indicating that the prize 

 belonged to the Kabloonan. Of course the carcass was divided, but I 

 stipulated for and obtained the skin, which I still possess as a trophy. An 

 hour afterwards I ate a bear steak. The Eskimo who had so importantly 

 contributed to the capture, was rewarded with a large broad dagger and some 

 other trifling presents, and was delighted with his good fortune." It is not 

 at all uncommon for an Eskimo, single-handed and unarmed, except with 

 the large knife which is his favourite weapon for encounters at close quarters, 

 to attack the bear on his own ground. In such a terrific battle, man is 

 almost invariably victorious over brute, though he seldom escapes without 

 receiving fearful wounds. 



Pushing off from the largest of the BaiUie Islands on the 10th, Captam 

 Pullen endeavoured to beat up for Cape Bathurst. With great diflftculty, 

 the boats were worked through narrow passages, between vast masses of 

 ice, to the cape. Here all farther progress was seen to be impossible. 



" The ice was here, the ice was there, 

 The ice was all around." 



It extended all round Cape Bathurst, and far to seaward, "in masses 

 heaped tumultuously, sparkUng and shimmering in the sunshine, each 

 crystalhsed point evolving hues of the prism. Not a lane, not a breach 

 appeared — a barrier of stone lay between us and our desired route." Here 

 Pullen remained several days, but no change taking place in the condition 

 of the vast icy barrier that intervened between him and the seas he had 



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