But C. A. H. complains that he cannot, for, poor man, the two new bear cubs are almost touching his bunk, and their scrape, if not very loud, is pretty constant, and bear perfume permeates his cabin even more than the rest of the ship. But praise be, there is a light breeze to-day from landward. I have not yet observed any scent of saxifrage or Arctic poppies, but it has freshened the too still atmosphere and we hope it will help to open up the land pack and let us land for musk oxen.
PAZE
EL CATHARO VALIENTE
Note.—For description of above drawings see [pp. 274-275].
Shows Captive Bear Cubs, Brother and Sister, and Ice Beginning to Form on the Sea Water
Our starboard bear raised Cain! almost all the wood of his cage is chawed up, so round the inside of the remainder we have hung heavy iron furnace bars and other round bars, holding the furnace bars more or less in position, there are ropes, chains and wire round all—a horrible sight, for the poor fellow inside, with all his struggles and the black of the furnace bars, is quite black, and he has lost a lot of hair. I would give a good deal to see him free again and over the side. But I pray heaven he does not settle his account with me before he goes for having roped him into his present sad condition. I believe it was the noise of the fight he put up that awakened me this morning, at least what I heard made me look out, and sure enough there were six men struggling with crowbars, hammers, axes, etc., etc., and then poor Bruin’s black head appeared between timbers and nails for a moment, till he was again closed up. It would take a couple of months of the ice and snow to clean his coat again.