ourselves surrounded by a pack and were forced to cast 
away in such hurry that we had not even full water-supply 
aboard. 
July 19th brought bear at last. 
A great “she,” followed by two cubs,—a year and a half 
old, perhaps,—put in their appearance. 
The cubs being too large to take, we held a spirited hunt 
and managed to shoot the three. The Polar bear is not a 
fish-eater, as is commonly supposed, there being no fish as 
far north as this. Instead, his is a carnivorous diet—seal 
very largely; and, as result, the flesh is far from palatable. 
Our method of preparing bear meat was to cut it into 
thin steaks, pound the oil and blubber out, far as possible, 
and then fry, with onions. If one has a penchant for onions, 
bear meat is not half bad. 
The temperature falling rapidly, thin ice coated our rig¬ 
ging again. Leads in the ice belt grew so narrow it was 
hard to find a way to the open water visible from the crow’s- 
nest. 
The ship crashed and butted, but the ice remained im¬ 
penetrable to westward; and she could only circle about, at 
half speed, all day, watching for chances to get into the pack. 
Seal were numerous in this region, and one of those seen 
was of a species not noticed before. 
Bear at this stage of the voyage proved, by all odds, the 
chief topic. 
To quote from the Log of the Laura for a specimen hunt: 
“Early in the afternoon Mr. Learmonth discovered three 
bear wandering over the ice, about a mile from the ship. He 
was on the bridge scanning the fields of ice all about, when 
the bear casually came into his line of vision. They were 
coming up the wind and proved to be a female and two large 
cubs eighteen months old. The ship was quickly headed so 
as to intercept them, but when we were quite close the large 
one sighted us, and all three came to the edge of the floe, and 
the mother sitting, the little ones standing, gazed upon this 
strange object looming up before them. We had been able 
to observe their actions minutely, and it was quite thrilling 
to see the old one, followed by her young, going with her 
great, ambling strides over the floes, jumping into and swim¬ 
ming rapidly across intervening water. 
“When we were within range, cameras were first brought 
[61] 
July 19 th 
