108 JOHN BURROUGHS 



rence is a large island at the gateway of the Arctic Ocean 

 and in spring the ice floes from the north often strand 

 polar bears upon it. Our hunters still dreamed of bears. 

 The shore was low and marshy and the high land miles 

 away hidden by the canopy of fog resting upon it. In his 

 walk one of our doctors saw the backs of two large white 

 objects, showing above a little swell in the land inside an 

 inlet. Here evidently were the polar bears they were in 

 quest of. The Doctor began to stalk them, replacing the 

 shells in his gun with heavier ones as he crept along. Now 

 he has another glimpse of the white backs; they are mov- 

 ing and can be nothing but bears. A few moments more 

 and he will be within close range, when lo! the heads and 



long necks of two white 

 swans come up above the 

 bank! The Doctor said he 

 never felt so much like a 

 goose before in his life. The 

 birds and flowers found 



YOUNG SWANS CAUGHT ON ST. LAWRENCE were a b Ut the Same aS 



those we had already seen. 

 Not many years ago there were on St. Lawrence Island 

 many encampments of Eskimo embracing several hun- 

 dred people. Late one autumn some whalers turned up 

 there with the worst kind of whiskey, with which they 

 wrought the ruin of the natives, persuading them to ex- 

 change most of their furs and other valuables for it, and 

 leaving them so debauched and demoralized that nearly 

 all perished of cold and hunger the following winter. 

 Village after village was found quite depopulated, the 

 people lying dead in their houses. 



HALL AND ST. MATTHEW ISLANDS. 



From St. Lawrence Island our course was again 

 through fog to St. Matthew Island, which we missed 



