THE BEAR. 
351 
cally at the wound. For a little while he spun round, 
biting the bloody spot with a short, probing nip ; and 
then, before I could reload my piece, started off at a 
limping but rapid gait. I mention this movement on 
account of the very curious fact which follows. The 
animal had found the ball, seized it between the in- 
cisors, and extracted it. The bullet is now in my pos- 
session, distinctly marked by his teeth. 
"After a very tedious and harassing pursuit, I came 
up to him at the young ice. He stood upon the brink 
of the lead. I was within long shot, and about to 
make preparations for a more deliberate and certain 
aim, when he took to the water, and then to the oppo- 
site young ice, bleeding and dropping every few yards. 
" Joined by Daly, a bold bull-headed Irishman, I 
crossed by a circuitous channel, and then took to the 
young ice myself, and tried to run him down. It was 
very exciting; and I fear I was not as prudent as I 
ought to have been ; for a dense fog had gathered 
around us, and the young floe, level as the sea which 
it covered, was but two nights old. The bear fell 
several times ; and at last, poor fellow, dragged him- 
self by his fore feet, trailing his hind quarters over the 
incrusted snow, so as to leave a long black imprint 
stained by blood. 
" The fog was getting more and more dense, and 
the frail ice — ^we were now walking, as it were, over 
the sea itself — bent under us so much, that I, like a 
prudent man, ordered a return. This chase cost us at 
least ten miles of journey, part of it at an Indian trot. 
We dripped like men in a steam bath. 
April 20, Sunday. Daly started with a company 
)f sailors after the wounded bear. They walked, by 
neir own account, six miles before they found him. 
