d leisurely to devour
it.

"The dogs is nothin' to him," muttered O'Riley. "Isn't it a curious
thing, now, to think that we're all at _sea_ a eatin', and drinkin', and
slaapin'--or goin' to slaape--jist as if we wor on the land, and the
great ocean away down below us there, wid whales, and seals, and
walrusses, and mermaids, for what I know, a swimmin' about jist under
whare we sit, and maybe lookin' through the ice at us this very minute.
Isn't it quare?"

"It is odd," said Fred, laughing, "and not a very pleasant idea.
However, as there is at least twelve feet of solid ice between us and
the company you mention, we don't need to care much."

"Ov coorse not," replied O'Riley, nodding his head approvingly as he
lighted his pipe; "that's my mind intirely, in all cases o' danger, when
ye don't need to be afeared, ye needn't much care. It's a good chart to
steer by, that same."

This last remark seemed to afford so much food for thought to the
company that nothing further was said by anyone until Fred rose and
proposed to turn in. West had already crawled into his blanket-bag, and
was stretched out like a mummy on the floor, and the sound of Meetuck's
jaws still continued as he winked sleepily over the walrus meat, when a
scraping was heard outside the hut.

"Sure, it's the foxes; I'll go and look," whispered O'Riley, laying down
his pipe and creeping to the mouth of the tunnel.

He came back, however, faster than he went, with a look of
consternation, for the first object that confronted him on looking out
was the enormous head of a Polar bear. To glance round for their
firearms was the first impulse, but these had unfortunately been left on
the sledge outside. What was to be done? They had nothing but their
clasp-knives in the igloe. In this extremity Meetuck cut a large hole
in the back of the hut intending to creep out and procure one of the
muskets, but the instant the opening was made the bear's head filled it
up. With a savage yell O'Riley seized the lamp and dashed the flaming
fat in the creature's face. It was a reckless deed, for it left them
all in the dark, but the bear seemed to think himself insulted, for he
instantly retreated, and when Meetuck emerged and laid hold of a gun he
had disappeared.

They found, on issuing into the open air, that a stiff breeze was
blowing, which, from the threatening appearance of the sky, promised to
become a gale; but as there was no apprehension to be entert