doctor; "nothing yet! Ah, this cursed refraction! We
are too far off; we shall never get used to it! That bear is more than
a mile away."

"Come on!" answered Bell.

The three companions hastened toward the animal, which had not been
alarmed by the firing; he seemed to be very large, but, without
weighing the danger, they gave themselves up already to the joy of
victory. Having got within a reasonable distance, they fired; the bear
leaped into the air and fell, mortally wounded, on the level ice
below.

[Illustration]

Duke rushed towards him.

"That's a bear," said the doctor, "which was easily conquered."

"Only three shots," said Bell with some scorn, "and he's down!"

"That's odd," remarked Johnson.

"Unless we got here just as he was going to die of old age," continued
the doctor, laughing.

"Well, young or old," added Bell, "he's a good capture."

Talking in this way they reached the small iceberg, and, to their
great surprise, they found Duke growling over the body of a white fox.

[Illustration]

"Upon my word," said Bell, "that's too much!"

"Well," said the doctor, "we've fired at a bear, and killed a fox!"

Johnson did not know what to say.

"Well," said the doctor with a burst of laughter in which there was a
trace of disappointment, "that refraction again! It's always deceiving
us."

"What do you mean, Doctor?" asked the carpenter.

"Yes, my friend; it deceived us with respect to its size as well as
the distance! It made us see a bear in a fox's skin! Such a mistake is
not uncommon under similar circumstances! Well, our imagination alone
was wrong!"

"At any rate," answered Johnson, "bear or fox, he's good eating. Let's
carry him off."

But as the boatswain was lifting him to his shoulders:--

"That's odd," he said.

"What is it?" asked the doctor.

"See there, Doctor, he's got a collar around his neck."

"A collar?" asked the doctor again, examining the fox.

In fact, a half-worn-out copper collar appeared under his white fur;
the doctor thought he saw letters engraved upon it; he unfastened it
from the animal's neck, about which it seemed to have been for a long
time.

"What does that mean?" asked Johnson.

"That means," said the doctor, "that we have just killed a fox more
than twelve years old,--a fox who was caught by James Ross in 1848."

"Is it possible?" said Bell.

"There's no doubt about it. I'm sorry we killed him! While he was in
winter-quarters, James Ros