374 
A BEAR KILLED. 
ject the bird idea: the shape, too, was that of a cloak- 
covered man; the motioni, as if he had opened his 
mantle-covered arms. Convinced that it was a hu- 
man being, an Esquimaux astray upon the ice, Mur- 
daugh and myself started off, nearing the hummock 
with hearts full of expectation. The traces on the 
soft snow would soon solve the mystery, and remove 
our only doubt, whether the Rescues might not be 
playing us a trick. 
" Whatever it was, it either did not perceive us ap- 
proaching, or was willing to avoid us ; for it kept it- 
self hidden behind a crag. Reaching, however, the 
spot where it had stood, we found traces, coprolitic 
and recent, of a bird ; footprints, as a learned professor 
would have said, of certain familiar animal processes, 
exaggerated and dignified by those of refraction. 
"On returning to the brig, the watchers told us 
that we had been ourselves curiously distorted ; and 
that, when perched on the little icy crag we had gone 
to scrutinize, we lengthened vertically into gigantic 
forms. The position of the bird, probably a glaucous 
gull, had been breast toward the brig : a vertical en- 
largement, with the white body and moving wings, 
explained the phenomenon. 
" The ' Rescues' had a very large bear hovering 
around them all this morning. At one P.M. he came 
within reach of a carefully-prepared ambush, receiv- 
ing four out of a half dozen balls, a number soon in- 
creased to nine. You may have some idea of the su- 
perb tenacity of life of this beast, when I tell you that 
he ran, thus perforated, with his skull broken and his 
shoulder shivered. He even attempted a charge, ut- 
tering a hissing sound, ejaculated by sudden impulse, 
like the 'blowing of a whale,' to use Captain Griffin's 
