begin the chase.
But if the front dog be well trained, he dashes on on one side, in a
totally opposite direction, smelling and barking as if he had a new
track. If his artifice succeeds, the whole team dart away after him,
and speedily losing the scent, proceed on their journey.

Sakalar, who still kept ahead of the party, when making a wide circuit
out at sea about midday, at the foot of a steep hill of rather rough
ice, found his dogs suddenly increasing their speed, but in the right
direction. To this he had no objection, though it was very doubtful
what was beyond. However, the dogs darted ahead with terrific
rapidity, until they reached the summit of the hill. The ice was here
very rough and salt, which impeded the advance of the sledge: but
off are the dogs, down a very steep descent, furiously tugging at
the sledge-halter, till away they fly like lightning. The harness had
broken off, and Sakalar remained alone on the crest of the hill. He
leaped off the nartas, and stood looking at it with the air of a man
stunned. The journey seemed checked violently. Next instant, his gun
in hand, he followed the dogs right down the hill, dashing away too
like a madman, in his long hunting-skates. But the dogs were out
of sight, and Sakalar soon found himself opposed by a huge wall of
ice. He looked back; he was wholly out of view of his companions. To
reconnoiter, he ascended the wall as best he could, and then looked
down into a sort of circular hollow of some extent, where the ice was
smooth and even watery.

He was about to turn away, when his sharp eye detected something
moving, and all his love of the chase was at once aroused. He
recognized the snow-cave of a huge bear. It was a kind of cavern,
caused by the falling together of two pieces of ice, with double
issue. Both apertures the bear had succeeded in stopping up, after
breaking a hole in the thin ice of the sheltered _polina_, or sheet
of soft ice. Here the cunning animal lay in wait. How long he had been
lying it was impossible to say, but almost as Sakalar crouched down
to watch, a seal came to the surface, and lay against the den of its
enemy to breathe. A heavy paw was passed through the hole, and the
sea-cow was killed in an instant. A naturalist would have admired
the wit of the ponderous bear, and passed on; but the Siberian hunter
knows no such thought, and as the animal issued forth to seize his
prey, a heavy ball, launched with unerring aim, laid him lo