of the cave, and drawing off my sealskin overcoat, threw it back upon my bed; then I took my hatchet, which I used ever as a weapon, and wandered away.

First I roamed along the western cliffs, searching the creeks for anything alive; but all I saw was swarms of seal swimming out at sea, and basking upon the distant reefs. Far off, in a patch of violet calm, a whale was spouting; and so still was the air, that I could hear the roar of his blow-hole from where I stood.

Then I clambered down to the western shore, and found nothing there.

Returning over the island, I made straight for the fields of ice; for although from the heights I could discern no sign of life upon them, I knew that the waterholes and the ice in their close vicinity were favourite haunts of the beasts I sought.

I rambled about the ice for hours, and although, as I had expected, I saw many seals, none were foolish enough to let me come nigh; till at last, as I was returning dissatisfied, I fell upon one of the small silken-coated species, fast asleep upon the floe. Coming round a great hummock, I was close upon it ere I knew, and ere it could reach the neighbouring water I killed it with a dexterous blow.

Now the beast was so light and small that I threw it bodily upon my shoulder, and carried it easily away; when, as I approached the gloomy shore, I was startled by a wild shriek as of a human being in mortal fear.

The next moment I saw, running swiftly towards me, the wild figure of a man, no other indeed than Richard Orchardson; and well might he shriek in terror, for behind him at a gallop was

a huge white bear—the first beast of the kind I had seen in these regions.

These animals are indeed fatal to man, having the lion's swiftness, the fierceness of the wild cat, and the sinuousness of the snake; and this that I beheld was a true monster of the breed, with huge shaggy paws, mighty talons, and horrible crimson jaws.

Even as I gazed, the man sped towards me, but before he could reach me, as was clearly his intent, slipped and fell upon his face.

The bear, which was some thirty yards behind, paused a moment, seeing him fall, and beholding me for the first time; then, without hesitation, it came bounding on— with just the same wavy sinuous motion, just the same cruel swiftness, though it was so great a monster, as hath the lissome weazel of our English woods and fields.

Then my heart leapt in my mouth, for I saw that the man was lost.

As I write, it all comes back to methe lonely field of ice, the fallen man, the horrible hungry beast approaching with open mouth; and I see the man now, as I saw him then, turn up his white face with one wild look of horror and despair.

I had no time to think, to pause; in another minute the beast's fangs would have been at his throat, its tongue lapping his blood. Before I knew what I was doing, I had thrown down the dead seal, and, bounding forward, placed myself between the beast and the fallen man.

There, hatchet in hand, with set teeth, I stood, half-a-dozen yards from the bear. Now, before such a mighty animal as that, an unarmed man is helpless; and I had only my hatchet, which, in such a struggle, would have been useless as a