had not been
sufficiently careful to secure them; for the poor animals, supposing
themselves deserted, no doubt, succeeded in breaking their lines, and
rejoined the two men in about an hour after. This, as it turned out,
was rather a fortunate circumstance.

Preparatory to quitting their sledge, the men had loaded themselves with
eight pounds of pemmican and two of biscuit, besides the artificial
horizon, sextant, and compass, a rifle, and a boathook. They had not
been an hour gone when, as above stated, four of the dogs overtook them.
An hour afterwards they came upon a polar bear with her cub.

The fight that followed, although somewhat foreign to our subject, is so
graphically described by Dr Kane, that we think it quite unnecessary to
apologise for inserting it here.

"The bear instantly took to flight; but the little one being unable to
keep pace with her, she turned back, and, putting her head under its
haunches, threw it some distance. The cub safe for the moment, she
would then wheel round and face the dogs, so as to give it a chance to
run away; but it always stopped, just as it alighted, till she came up
and threw it ahead again; it seemed to expect her aid, and would not go
on without it. Sometimes the mother would run a few yards ahead, as if
to coax the young one up to her, and when the dogs came up she would
turn and drive them back then, as they dodged her blows, she would
rejoin the cub and push on, sometimes putting her head under it,
sometimes catching it in her mouth by the nape of the neck.

"For a time she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving the two
men far in the rear. They had engaged her on the land-ice; but she led
the dogs in-shore, up a small stony valley which opened into the
interior. After she had gone a mile and a half, her pace slackened,
and, the little one being jaded, she soon came to a halt.

"The men were then only half a mile behind, and running at full speed.
They soon came up to where the dogs were holding her at bay. The fight
was now a desperate one. The mother never went more than two yards
ahead, constantly looking at the cub. When the dogs came near her, she
would sit upon her haunches, and take the little one between her
hind-legs, fighting the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she
could have been heard a mile off. Never was an animal more distressed.
She would stretch her neck and snap at the nearest dog with her shining
teeth, whirling he