CHAPTER III 
WE MEET THE ICE AND GET A POLAR BEAR 
While we were steaming along off Point Belcher, 
about seventy-five miles to the southwest of Point 
Barrow, I was in the crow’s nest, which on the 
Karluh was situated at the foretopgallant-mast, 
conning the ship through the broken ice, when 
through my binoculars I saw a polar bear about 
three miles away on the level floe. This was a wel¬ 
come sight, for the meat would be an addition to our 
current food supply and the hide useful in several 
ways. There was no wind, so the bear did not 
scent us. At first we could not go towards him 
because the ice was too closely packed,—in fact at 
times we had to steam away from him to follow the 
open lanes of water—but finally we managed to 
get headed in the right direction. When we got 
within a few hundred yards of him he spied us and 
promptly went into the water. That was just 
what I wanted; if he had stayed on the ice he would 
probably have started to run and as he could run 
much faster than the ship could steam he would 
probably have got away from us. 
With the bear in the water I now worked the 
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