e him another
thrust, which I might very well have done, in the side. When he had got
wheeled round, he rolled over the other two bears, and the three
together, all roaring in a dreadful way, rolled against the snow-wall of
our fort, and broke it down; and now, as soon as they could scramble to
their legs again, they hurried away through the snow down into the
valley,--the smallest one trying hard to keep up, and whining piteously
all the while, as if he were afraid something terrible was coming to
catch him; and now, just as we had done before, when we had, with our
shouts, frightened the bears away when they had first come to disturb
us, we ran after them, little thinking of danger, in the excitement of
the moment.

"We found that the bear I had wounded held straight down the valley, as
was easily told by the red streak he left behind him on the snow. The
other two turned to the right, and ran over in the direction of the old
narwhal.

"Following the red streak, we came soon down to the beach; and then
climbing over the rough ice which the tide had piled up, we were quickly
upon the frozen sea, hurrying on as fast as we could go. Indeed, no
feeling of fear ever crossed our minds; for the great quantity of blood
that the bear left behind him somehow or other went to convince us,
without much reflection, that the bear must be dead, and that we should
presently come upon him.

"While hurrying on at this rate, our spirits received as sudden a check
as they had on a previous occasion; for we did at length come upon the
bear, sure enough, and, forgetting all our courage immediately, we
wheeled about in great alarm, and ran back towards the hut as fast as we
could go.

"Finding, however, that we were not pursued, we turned about again; and,
proceeding more cautiously this time, we came, in a little while, in
sight of the bear again, very near where he was before; but now he was
clearly by no means a formidable enemy; for he was going along very
slowly, and making a crooked track, as if he was drunk. Directly he fell
over; and, in a little while afterwards, we went up to him, and found
him dead,--having bled to death from the wound I had given him.

"You may easily imagine how rejoiced we were; for now we had an enormous
supply of food, and a fine bear-skin besides; so I lost no time in
unlashing the knife-blade from the end of 'Old Crumply,' and with this
we began to butcher him. It was a very cold and tedious operatio