MR. KENNEDY AND M. BELLOT. 
437 
mine River sufferings — and an excellent ice-master, 
named Least. We saw also, in the course of the day, 
his second in command, M. Bellot, a volunteer from 
the French navy, an accomplished and gallant officer. 
[ regret that the relations of confirmed friendship I 
have established with these gentlemen make it indeli- 
cate on my part to speak of them here as I could wish. 
I have no means of knowing if Mr. Kennedy is appre- 
ciated at home — his self-denying, philanthropic devo- 
tion, and unostentatious energy ; but it has given me 
great pleasure to hear that M. Bellot has recently re- 
ceived from his government a deserved promotion. 
We communicated our plans to each other, and 
agreed, as far as practicable, to pursue our course to- 
gether. This companionship became a source of great 
satisfaction to us. We could not feel solitary while 
our three little vessels sailed in one fleet. We fol- 
lowed each other’s leads, warped, tracked, and bored, 
and had all our conflicts with the ice together. When 
we were beset and at a stand-still, we enjoyed each 
other’s company, ate pemmican and loon, went oht 
hunting, and took long walks with each other. 
One evening I remember enjoying a delightful 
tramp, with both M. Bellot and Mr. Kennedy. We 
began it by chasing a small specimen of the Polar 
bear. They made signals to guide us from the Al- 
bert, where they could see his course; and after puz- 
zling through the floes, we reached a large berg, be- 
hind which he lay ensconced. Mr. Kennedy, and his 
follower, Gideon, took one side; M. Bellot and ray- 
self the other — it being our task to turn him toward 
them. We got within about one hundred and twen- 
ty yards of him before he galloped off. M. Bellot, in 
his excitement, tumbled down twice, and fired once. 
