r hears the sound also, and
hastens to the place, for it is here that he, too, must make his living.
This is the only time that Esquimaux ever dare to tackle a polar bear,
for when he is going about alone and hungry he is very fierce and
dangerous; but when the ice breaks up the bear goes straight for the
sound. This grows louder and longer, until there is a mighty crash,
louder than thunder, and great walls of ice are thrown high in air, and
a space of open water is to be seen. When the commotion has ceased, my
people crowd along the edge of the water. They first look out for the
bear, for they don't want him to catch any of their seals. They have
some of their dogs loose in front of the sleigh, and some of them
harnessed to it. When they come to the bear, he is busy watching for
seal and pays very little attention to the hunters or their dogs. The
loose dogs run up to him and begin to worry him. He chases some of them,
and the others bite him behind. If he makes a rush at the hunters in
their sleighs, the dog teams draw them swiftly away. The loose dogs keep
on worrying the bear until he becomes furious with rage. Every little
while a sweep of his huge paw lays one of his enemies on the snow,
silent in death. A few minutes later, perhaps, another will be caught up
in the powerful embrace of the great brute. The dogs crowd in and take
hold wherever they can. The bear grows frantic in his struggles to
punish his adversaries. At last he lies at full length panting upon the
snow. Then it is that some hunter ventures to leave his dog-sled and try
to kill him with a walrus tusk. No sooner is he sure that the animal is
dying than he hastens to get a drink of warm blood. Then a long cut is
made down the belly of the animal with the points of the walrus tusks
and the skin is pulled and pushed off with their hands. All hands feast
upon the warm grease that is inside the animal, and after that they
divide the meat and take it home.

I will now explain that the breaking up of the ice I have told about is
not from thawing. In the warmest time we ever saw in that part of
Greenland where I came from, it never thawed enough to make the water
run in streams. A few bare spots were melted off on the rocks and high
points of land. Once in a while the snow would melt enough to drip a
little, and form icicles, but not often. It was cold, cold, bitter cold,
all the year round, and the people in this country can hardly have an
idea of it, ev