on we shall come to the ice cliff,
and be turned back. It is impossible to get up here and go inward
without chipping a way up that glacier, to find more snow, so let's go
back."

"Without a single bird?" cried the doctor in a disappointed tone.

"Well, another hundred yards or so, then," said the captain; "but I
don't think we shall get anything. We want the mouth of a river or a
lagoon from which the ice has just melted."

"What's the matter with the dog?" said Steve suddenly, after they had
walked on for another ten minutes; for Skene had suddenly seemed as if
he had conceived it to be his duty to turn himself into as near a
resemblance to an arctic wolf as he possibly could. His ears were laid
back, his eyes lurid, his teeth bared, and the thick ruff above his neck
and shoulders set up, bristling and waving as if swept by a strong
current of air.

"Look out, gentlemen; he scents game," whispered Johannes.

"Stop!" said the captain. "It was near here that we saw the bears."

"No, no, a mile farther," said the doctor.

At that moment Skene growled savagely, and from behind a pile of grey
rocks some fifty yards to their right a large animal suddenly rushed
out, turned and stared at them for a moment or two, and then shuffled
off at a lumbering trot, going rapidly over the rough ground in the
direction of the ice.

"Don't fire! don't fire!" cried the captain. "A stern shot would only
injure without killing the poor brute. Let him go."

"My word!" cried the doctor as he lowered his gun; "but he is a fine
one."

Steve, too, had eagerly raised his double gun to fire, and felt quite
resentful at being ordered not to draw trigger; and he stood now
watching the great, thick-legged creature with its long, silky,
cream-coloured fur hanging low down, the animal being as big in body as
an ox, but with small, sharp, ferrety-looking head.

"But if the gentleman fires and hits, sir," said Jakobsen eagerly, "it
will stop him and make him angry; then we can kill him with the spears."

"Look out!" cried the captain; "the other. Hah! Good dog!"

For, unnoticed by them as they watched the retreating bear, Skene had
rushed off round the pile of rocks and put up the second bear, a monster
certainly bigger than the first, and it rushed into sight before the
party from the _Hvalross_, pursued by the dog, which was barking loudly
now and snapping at its heels.

After shuffling along a little way without noticing the