ppeared.

"'Do you think he has scented us?' I asked. 'I do not see how he could,'
my guide replied, 'the wind is in the wrong direction for that. He has
gone for some reason of his own, you may be sure. There may have been
people on the other side of the hill and he has scented them.'

"We moved all round our boulder to scan the country, but there was no
bear in sight as far as our eyes could reach. After a while I noticed a
small black spot on the top of a hill. It was the bear; he was looking
all round. He then walked away and disappeared. Soon he appeared again,
and we saw him walk round and round a cluster of pines. The Lapp said:
'The bear is walking, making a ring in that manner. He tries to find out
if there is any danger for him, and by walking round he is sure to get
the wind, no matter from what direction it comes. Sometimes the bear
will try a number of places for several days before he selects one.'

"'How clever the bears are to walk around in that manner,' I said.

"Suddenly the bear disappeared. 'He has scented us,' said the Lapp, 'and
I think he will never come back here. We have eaten all the food we have
with us. We shall have to feed on berries the rest of our way. This bear
will probably remain in this region and take up his winter quarters
around here somewhere. I will find out where he will lie. Come to me
early in the spring, before the snow melts, and we will kill him.'

"'All right,' I replied; but the following spring, I regret to say, I
was travelling in another part of the country, but I heard that Bruin
met his fate at the hands of my Lapp when he aroused himself from his
long sleep and came out from under the snow."

The bears in Sweden, Norway, and Finland are very fine animals and
attain great size. They vary in the color of their fur, some being
almost black, but generally they are of different shades of brown. I
think they rank in size next to the grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains.
They are sometimes dangerous, but not so much so as the grizzly.

CHAPTER XXIV

PREPARATIONS FOR CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN.--DECIDE TO
TAKE THE TRAIL TO THE ULF FJORD.--HOUSES OF REFUGE.--A SERIES OF
TERRIFIC WINDSTORMS IN THE MOUNTAINS.--LOST.--GLOOMY REFLECTIONS.--A
HAPPY REUNION.

The next day I said to Jakob and to the Lapps, "I wish some of you to go
with me across the mountains to the shore of the Arctic Ocean. I will
pay you well."

We were then be