doubts before, that
this was the man and these were the dogs that had passed us, following
the bear.

"The man tried his best to explain to us the whole affair, talking very
rapidly; but we could not gather from what he said more than our eyes
told us already, for on the sledge we soon discovered a large bear-skin,
all bloody and folded up, and some large pieces of bear's meat. The dogs
were tied some distance from the sledge, and were securely fastened by
their traces to a heavy stone, which I was very glad of, for the
wolfish-looking beasts were snarling at each other, and fighting, and
howling at us continually,--seeming all the while to wish themselves
loose, that they might fly upon us, and tear us to pieces.

"If we could not understand the hunter's words, we made out by his
signs, after a while, that he had seen us when he passed in pursuit of
the bear. After overtaking and capturing the animal, he turned about
upon his track to look for us, and, finding our footmarks at last, he
had followed us to the hut, calling loudly, as he neared us, to attract
our attention, for he could not find us easily,--our hut was so buried
up in snow.

"After being fully satisfied with the inspection of the dogs and sledge,
and what there was upon it, we all three went up to the hut.

"It would be difficult to describe our visitor. I have said that he was
wholly dressed in furs. His pantaloons were made of bear-skins reaching
to the knees, where they met the boots, which were made of the same
materials. His underclothing was made of birds' skins, like our own, and
he wore a coat of fox-skins, with a heavy hood covering up the head
completely. On his hands he wore mittens made of seal-skins, with warm
dog-skin for an inside lining, and his stockings were of the same. So
you see no part of him was exposed but his face, which was quite dark,
or, rather, copper-colored (something darker than a North American
Indian), and it was very broad and very round. The nose was very small
and very flat, and the eyes were small and narrow. His hair was jet
black, long and tangled, and was cut straight across the forehead. He
had but little beard,--only a few black, wiry-looking bristles growing
on his upper lip and on the tip of his chin. You would hardly suppose
that such a creature could be anything but savage and repulsive; yet
this he did not seem to be at all; on the contrary he appeared like the
most amiable fellow that ever was seen.