A RACE WITH A POLAR BEAR. 



333 



cartridges within reach. When my 

 young savage sounded the alarm 

 I grabbed my Winchester and car- 

 tridge belt and started to look for the 

 game. 



As I drew near the meat cache 

 I saw a big polar bear, with his head 

 down in the barrel, helping himself 

 vigorously. The whole pack of 60 

 dogs were leaping, barking and howl- 

 ing about him. The bear paid no at- 

 tention to them, and they all seemed 

 afraid to take hold of him. 1 walked 

 up to within 100 yards and took a shot 

 at old Ursus arcticus. When the ball 

 hit him lie leaped into the air, and 

 as he came down on the ice the en- 

 tire pack of dogs lit into him. For 

 a minute or 2 there was the liveliest 

 fight I ever saw. The bear let out in 

 all directions with his great paws, and 

 at every blow some poor do£ was sent 

 shrieking and spinning across the ice. 

 As soon as the bear had thinned out 

 the pack sufficiently to escape, he 

 struck out across the ice floe, for a 

 bit of open water half a mile away. 



At that stage of the game there 

 were but 3 dogs in. the whole pack 

 that wanted bear. The others had had 

 more than they cared for. Those 3 

 dogs followed the bear, and for a few 

 hundred yards there was as pretty a 

 race as was ever run on any track. 

 There was simply a streak of creamy 

 white followed by a streak of black. 



I started in oursuit, but did not dare 

 fire for fear of killing a dog. The bear 

 was handicapped by the wound I had 

 given him, and after running a few 

 hundred yards the dogs caught him. 

 Then there was another scrap of 

 about 10 seconds, and the race was 

 reversed. That time the dogs were 

 coming toward the ship as if they had 

 been shot out of a gun, and the bear 

 was after them. This was my inning. 

 I waited until the bear came within 

 50 yards of me, when I put another 

 bullet into him that broke him down ; 

 but he soon got up again and started 

 for another piece of open water in 



THEN THE RACE WAS REVERSED. 



