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blow of ſome whale; as I looked along a great way off on the ice, I ſaw like a great white ox coming runing toward us; which proved to be a great bear, who had found the ſmell of us: we rowed off from the ice thinking he would not take the water but in he came with a plunge, and after us he comes; one of our harpineers makes a noſe, or loop, and moſt dexterouſly throws it about his neck, and hawls, him in to the ſtem, for had he come a-long-ſide of us, we had been overſet, by his weight and ſtrength, fixed his long claws in the ſtern, the rope kept him cloſs to, while we thruſt a lance into his throat, and with one of his great fore paws he gripped the lance and bowed it ſo, that it was at the coming out till we run in another on the other ſide of his throat, and after a tedious ſtrugle and blooding, expired.
The ſkin was ſold for five guineas in Edinburgh, but I would aſſiſt at the killing of twenty whales or I engaged ſuch a monſter again. We likewiſe brought home two young bears with us, and as our cook was taking them up to Edinburgh, one of them ſnaped off his thumb.
During the late war, I was taken by the French and retaken, and afterwards preſſed on the coaſt of Ireland and ſerved ſix years aboard of the man of war, was aboard of the Hero, and with Admiral hawk when he beat the French fleet in capron-bay, of which battle I ſhall give a relation
