BEARS FOR A CHANGE 235 



bullets fell about it, and now alive to its danger, 

 it plunged into the sea and struck out for the 

 polar pack a mile distant. 



Mr. Winchester again lowered, with Gabriel's 

 boat to back him up. The chase was short and 

 swift. The boats began to overhaul the bear as 

 it approached the ice, the mate's bullets splash- 

 ing all about the animal, but doing no damage. 

 As the brute was hauling itself upon the ice, a 

 ball crashed into its back, breaking its spine. It 

 fell back into the water and expired in a furious 

 flurry. A running bowline having been slipped 

 over its neck, it was towed back to the brig. 



Not long afterward, while we were cruising in 

 open water, a polar bear swam across the brig's 

 stern. There was neither ice nor land in sight. 

 Figuring the ship's deck as the center of a circle 

 of vision about ten miles in diameter, the bear 

 already had swum five miles, and probably quite 

 a bit more, and it is certain he had an equal 

 distance to go before finding any ice on which 

 to rest. It probably had drifted south on an ice 

 pan and was bound back for its home on the 

 polar pack. 



