silver ranks of the journeying fish, he
saw the big white form swimming at the surface some little distance
away. Up through the thronged and swirling tide he darted on a long
slant, straight and swift as a hungry trout rising to a May-fly.

As the bear, with lowered head and great haunches uplifted began his
dive, he felt a terrible, grinding thrust in his left flank, and it
seemed as if a rock from the floor of the channel rose up and smote him,
half-lifting him from the water. The narwhal, his aim confused by the
blinding of one eye, had again failed to strike true. The point of his
tusk had caught the bear's flank on such a slant that it did not
penetrate to any vital organ, but ran up, perhaps an inch below the
hide, between the outermost curve of two of the upper ribs, and
reappeared a little behind the shoulder. The tremendous force of that
upward rush carried the great twisted horn right through to its very
base.

Having delivered what he felt must be a fatal and final blow, the
narwhal at once backed downward with powerful surges of his tail, trying
to withdraw his horn. But now he found himself in a deadly trap. The
bear, mad with pain, and held firmly, proceeded to enwrap his
adversary's whole head in a frightful embrace. Slashing, tearing,
ripping, with all four desperate paws at once, he was speedily shredding
the narwhal's head to fragments. With mad thrashings the narwhal
struggled to break loose, but in vain. Down he sank, till he lay upon
the bottom, that destroying bulk still fixed upon his head. When he
felt the solid ground beneath him he bent his mighty body like a bow,
and sprung it, with a force that nothing could resist. His horn tore
itself free, the bear was flung loose, and he lurched to one side with a
violence that threw the swimming salmon overhead into confusion and sent
great surges boiling to the surface. Then, blind, shattered, and jetting
blood in torrents from his gaping throat, he settled upon the bottom,
writhed feebly for a few minutes, and lay still.

[Illustration: "THEN, WITH THE LARGEST PRIZE IN HIS JAWS, HE SWAM SLOWLY
TO THE ROCK."]

The bear, plunging upward through the close ranks of the salmon, began
to cough hoarsely as soon as he got his head above water. It was some
moments before he could do more than keep himself afloat while he
regained his breath. Then he began slowly swimming round and round in a
circle, still full of battle rage, but not yet able to control h