530 



ARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION. 



The distance to the sea-ice was one mile, and thence to where my 

 companions were, another mile. I shall not soon forget that day's 

 adventure. I awaited the fourth growl, and when that came I 

 quickly packed up instruments and started on a run, turning ev- 

 ery few moments to see whether I was ahead. In my course was 

 a long drift of snow, and as I was making a rapid transit of this, 

 a spot in it proved treacherously soft, which gave me a fall, and 

 heels over head I went to the bottom of the hill. Fortunately it 

 was the quickest and most direct passage I could make, and, as it 

 happened, no bone or any thing else was broken. When I ar- 

 rived back and told my companions what I had heard, they de- 

 clared I had had a narrow escape from either hungry wolves or a 

 polar bear. It was 4 30 P.M. when we resumed our way across 

 Frobisher Bay. Having got fairly through the passage between 

 the islands on the ice-foot, we turned southerly. We soon saw 

 ahead immense numbers of seals out on the ice. They extended 

 over a large area, and were so numerous that with my glass I 

 could not count them. 



Just as we were turning off the ice to an island — J. K. Smith 

 Island, as I named it — on which we had proposed to make our 

 seventeenth encampment, three wolves appeared in sight, coming 

 swiftly on our track, and presently on came a fourth — all most 



THE HTJNGKY WOLVES. 



ferocious - looking brutes. They were bold, approaching quite 

 near, watching our movements, and now and then opening and 

 snapping their teeth, and smacking their chaps, as if already feast- 

 ing on human steaks and blood. We prepared for the fray by 

 arming with rifle, gun, and spear, each ready to defend himself as 

 best he could. Between the wolves and us was much hummocky 



