waggling one's leg when the seal put up
his head, he mistook one for a basking brother, and being a very
curious animal, he again dived, and came up a few feet away. We shot
two, both of which Podge dived after and retrieved, to the unbounded
joy both of ourselves and his four-footed chums, who more than gladly
shared the carcasses with him later.

A friend, returning from an island, was jogging quietly along on the
bay ice, when his team suddenly went wild. A bear had crossed close
ahead, and before he could unlash his rifle the komatik had dashed
right onto the animal, who, instead of running, stood up and showed
fight. The team were all around him, rapidly snarling themselves up in
their own traces. He had just time to draw his hunting knife across
the traces and so save the dogs, caring much more for them than he did
for the prey. Whilst his dogs held the attention of the bear, he was
able, though only a few feet away, to unlash his rifle at his leisure,
and very soon ended the conflict.

A gun, however, is a temptation, even to a doctor, and nearly cost one
of my colleagues his life. He was crossing a big divide, or neck of
land, between bays, and was twenty miles from anywhere, when his dogs
took the trail of some deer, which were evidently not far off. Being
short of fresh food, he hitched up his team, and also his pilot's
team, leaving only his boy driver in charge, while the men pursued the
caribou. He enjoined the boy very strictly not to move on any account.
By an odd freak a sudden snowstorm swept out of a clear sky just after
they left. They missed their way, and two days later, starving and
tired out, they found their first refuge, a small house many miles
from the spot where they had left the sledges. When, however, they
sent a relief team to find the komatiks, they discovered the boy still
"standing by" his charge.

When crossing wide stretches of country we are often obliged to camp
if it comes on dark. It is quite impossible to navigate rough country
when one cannot see stumps, windfalls, or snags; and I have more than
once, while caught in a forest looking for our tilt, been obliged
to walk ahead with a light, and even to search the snow for tracks
with the help of matches, when one's torch has carelessly been left at
home. On one occasion, having stopped our team in deep snow at
nightfall, we left it in the woods to walk out to a village, only five
or six miles distant, on our snowshoes. We entir