Polar Bears.
Kane had many a chase over the ice after the bears. When a bear track is seen on the ice or snow, the dogs are immediately set upon the trail. The hunters follow the dogs quickly and silently. When they come within sight of the bear, the hunter releases the dogs from their harness, so that they may surround the bear and cut off his retreat. The dogs are carefully trained not to fight the bear, but to annoy him. They run around him in circles and prevent him from making his escape. The bear, when brought to bay, rises on his haunches, seizes the nearest dog in his teeth and tosses him to one side. The dogs instinctively relax their muscles in falling, and are seldom hurt; they usually rise immediately and return to the conflict. In this way the bear is detained until the hunters arrive.
Sometimes two hunters engage one animal, striking at him with their lances. Two men can easily kill a bear. As one man pretends to thrust his lance into the right side, the animal turns, and tries to protect himself with his fore paws. Then the other hunter gives him his death wound in the left side.
A man must have a great deal of skill and courage to be able to kill a polar bear single-handed. The single hunter provokes the bear to follow him by running as if trying to escape. The bear comes down on all four feet and prepares to pursue the man. With a rapid jump to the right, the hunter runs back to his first position. The bear turns in the same way to follow, when the hunter skillfully plunges his lance into the left side just below the shoulder. Even then the most expert hunter sometimes has to leave his spear in the animal’s side and run for his life, though a wound given in that spot is usually fatal. The Eskimos hold in highest esteem the hunter who can kill a bear single-handed.
The flesh of the bear is used for food, and the fur for clothing. Dr. Kane killed so many of these animals that he actually tired of the sport.
X. HOME AGAIN
1855
Dr. Kane and his companions passed two winters in the ice regions, living in a place farther north than any explorers had ever lived in before. Few Arctic explorers at that time had passed two winter seasons in the ice.
During the cold months the average temperature at Rensselaer harbor stood at -29°, during the summer months at 33°. When you consider that the summer was colder than the average winter in the vicinity of New York City, you will understand in part what were the severities of the climate that these men endured. The first winter, with the long, dark night, was dismal and gloomy, and there was a great deal of sickness and suffering among the men. When summer came, Kane hoped that his ship might be released from the ice. He waited a long time, but the ice did not thaw, and again winter came upon them suddenly. It was then too late for the men to escape to the south; so a second winter was passed on board the Advance. It was a sad time: many of the men died and many suffered terribly from disease and want of food.