90 
A BEAR. 
ochre or gamboge— and his black, blue-black, nose 
looked abrupt and accidental. His haunches were 
regularly arched, and, supported as they were on pon- 
derous legs, gave him an almost elephantine look. 
The movements of the animal were peculiar. A sort 
of drawling dignity seemed to oppress him, and to for- 
bid his lifting his august legs higher than was abso- 
lutely necessary. It might have been an instinctive 
philosophy that led him to avoid the impact of his 
toes upon ice of uncertain strength ; but whatever it 
was, he reminded me of a colossal puss in boots. 
" I will not dwell upon our adventures, as, on mur- 
derous thoughts intent, we chased this bear. We 
were an absurd party of zealots, rushing pell-mell 
upon the floes with vastly more energy than discre- 
tion. While walking in the lightest manner over sus- 
picious ice, my companion next in line behind me dis- 
appeared, gun and all ; yet, after getting him out, we 
insanely continued our chase with the aid of boats. 
After laboring very hard for about three hours, repeat- 
ed duckings in water at 30° cooled down our enthu- 
siasm. The bear, meantime, never varied from his un- 
concerned walk. We saw him last in a labyrinth of 
hummock ice. 
" In the evening it blew a gale from the southward 
and eastward, holding on until midnight. Strange to 
say, it produced no marked effects on the pack. At 
first we feared a nip, for, judging from the wind which 
swept our floes, it must have been severe in the open 
sea. But we rode it out in our icy harbor without any 
trouble, although the undulations of both ice and wa- 
ter told of the commotion outside. 
" Our day's progress was one mile and a half 
"Jw/y 13. Fast again ! for, except that mile and a 
