were after, but we thought two rifles, six
Esquimaux spears and dogs were strong enough for them, and we went
carelessly on, guided by a native until we were in their haunts, as the
natives informed us.

"'You don't pretend to say that the beasts are in that ugly looking
hole, do you?' said father, as the guide pointed to a low hole that ran
beneath a high cliff, bordering the bay.

"'There,' said the native, still pointing to the hole; 'one, two, big,
one little.'

"'Three of them! Why, you rogue, what made you lead us into their den?
A pretty time there will be if they all charge us at once!'

"'White man shoot one big one, other white man shoot one big one, red
men and dogs, six men, six dogs kill little one,' said the Esquimaux,
smiling at the allotment he had made.

"'All very well if they have the goodness to die at the first, or even
second fire; but there have been animals of this kind that have
required twenty balls before it was safe to approach them. If wounded,
without being disabled, they are ferocious.'

"'Bear eat white man then; bear very fond of him,' said the native,
enjoying the scrape he had led us into.

"'Look here, you villain,' said father, 'if we are killed I will blow
your brains out, depend upon it, when we return to the station!'

"'White man may, when he gets back, if he is killed,' said the guide,
who stood grinning horribly with his keen, serpent-like eyes fixed on
the den of beasts.

"The ground was covered with snow, and the bay for half a mile out with
ice strong enough to have held a hundred tons in one solid body.
Beyond, the bay was filled with a sea of floating ice, that ebbed in
and out again as the wind or tide carried it. I said the cliff skirted
the bay; still there was a beach some twenty rods wide that lay between
it and the bay which was covered with snow as every thing else is in
that region in March.

"'We are in for it, Andy,' said father. 'Keep a good look out that the
beasts do not get at you; if they do, depend upon it, they will give
you cause to repent your hunt. See! the natives are pricking them up
with the points of their spears. Stand back so as to give him a wide
berth, and we will let the natives see that some things can be done as
well as others.'

"'Back! back!' yelled the natives; at the same moment a savage shaggy
head protruded from the den, and with angry growls, made for the
nearest native. Every one of us, in our haste to clear the way for