ssage to the open water. While engaged in this work
he was instrumental in saving the crew of another of the boats which
had been attacked by walruses.

His most notable adventure during this Polar cruise, however, was a
fight with a bear.

One night he stole away from his ship with a companion in pursuit of a
bear. A fog which had been rising when they left the Carcass soon
enveloped them. Between three and four o'clock in the morning, when the
weather began to clear, they were sighted by Captain Lutwidge and his
officers, at some distance from the ship, in conflict with a huge bear.
The boys, who had been missed soon after they set out on their
adventure, were at once signaled to return. Nelson's companion urged
him to obey the signal, and, though their ammunition had given out, he
longed to continue the fight.

"Never mind," he cried excitedly; "do but let me get a blow at this
fellow with the butt end of my musket, and we shall have him."

Captain Lutwidge, seeing the boy's danger,--he being separated from the
bear only by a narrow chasm in the ice,--fired a gun. This frightened
the bear away. Nelson then returned to face the consequences of his
disobedience.

He was severely reprimanded by his captain for "conduct so unworthy of
the office he filled." When asked what motive he had in hunting a bear,
he replied, still trembling from the excitement of the encounter, "Sir,
I wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father."

The expedition finally worked its way out of the ice and sailed for
home.

Horatio's next voyage was to the East Indies, aboard the Seahorse, one
of the vessels of a squadron under the command of Sir Edward Hughes.
His attention to duty attracted the notice of his senior officer, on
whose recommendation he was rated as a midshipman.

After eighteen months in the trying climate of India, the youth's
health gave way, and he was sent home in the Dolphin. His physical
weakness affected his spirits. Gloom fastened upon him, and for a time
he was very despondent about his future.

"I felt impressed," he says, "with an idea that I should never rise in
my profession. My mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I
had to surmount and the little interest I possessed. I could discover
no means of reaching the object of my ambition. After a long and gloomy
revery in which I almost wished myself overboard, a sudden flow of
patriotism was kindled within me and presented my k