Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/247

THE LARGE POLAR BEARS, I43 intense in tte loft that the men could not hold the barrels of their guns, and their breath froze as it left their lips and floated about them as snow. Marbre was right ; the bears were all on the roof, and the sound of their feet and their growls could be distinctly heard. Their great claws caught in the laths of the roof beneath the ice, and there was some danger that they might have sufficient strength to tear away the woodwork. The Lieutenant and his men, becoming giddy and faint from the intense cold, were soon obliged to go down, and Hobson announced the state of afl'airs in as hopeful a tone as he could assume. " The bears," he said, " are now upon the roof. We ourselves have nothing to fear, as they can't get into our rooms ; but they may force an entrance to the loft, and devour the furs stowed away there. Now these furs belong to the Company, and it is our duty to preserve them from injury. I ask you then, my friends, to aid me in removing them to a place of safety." All eagerly volunteered, and relieving each other in parties of two or three, for none could have supported the intense severity of the cold for long at a time, they managed to carry all the furs into the large room in about an hour. Whilst the work was proceeding, the bears continued their efforts to get in, and tried to lift up the rafters of the roof. In some places the laths became broken by their weight, and poor Mac-Nab was in despair; he had not reckoned upon such a contingency when he constructed the roof, and expected to see it give way every moment. The day passed, however, without any change in the situation. The bears did not get in ; but a no less formidable enemy, the cold, gradually penetrated into every room. The fires in the stoves burnt low ; the fuel in reserve was almost exhausted ; and before twelve o'clock, the last piece of wood would be burnt, and the genial warmth of the stove would no longer cheer the unhappy colo- nists. Death would then await them — death in its most fearful form, from cold. The poor creatures, huddled together round the stove, felt that their own vital heat must soon become exhausted, but not a word of complaint passed their lips. The women bore their sufferings with the greatest heroism, and Mrs Mac-Nab pressed her baby convulsively to her ice-cold breast. Some* of the soldiers