After sliding the rest of the musk ox kill down the mountainside, the three successful hunters gorged themselves upon raw meat and also fed the dogs as much as they could hold. Then they made camp and were soon peacefully sleeping. But this night they slept by turns, one keeping watch over their great supply of fresh meat. The whole of the next day was spent in skinning and cutting up the thirteen carcasses. Even so they had to work hard before darkness set in. So they again camped in the lea of the slippery mountain.
Early the next day they packed the meat and robes upon the three sledges. When they had loaded each komatik to its capacity, they cached the rest of the meat, covering it with boulders, and marked the spot, in case they came that way again.
The meat would at once freeze and there was a good chance of finding it still eatable according to Eskimo appetites even six months hence.
When everything had been made ready on the third morning after sighting the Omingmongs, it was decided that Tukshu and Tunkine should proceed on the journey towards Eskimo town while Eiseeyou prospected about for the balance of the day for more Omingmongs. He could easily overtake the party as the komatiks were loaded very heavily and would travel slow.
So Eiseeyou took fresh meat enough with him for a day's rations, filled his belt with a new supply of cartridges, and set off.
They had come northward parallel with the sea, not going more than twenty miles inland at any time. So Eiseeyou turned back towards the sea, wishing to explore that part of the country. If he was looking for an adventure he certainly found it, but not in just the form that he would have selected had he had anything to say about it. But when one goes prospecting in a wilderness like this, he must expect to meet almost any sort of a wild stranger. So if Eiseeyou was astonished, he may also have surprised the Czar.
The polar bear, whom I call the Czar of the Frozen North, is in a class quite by himself. He is not nearly as large as his cousin the Kadiak bear, but that huge beast inhabits a comparatively small area and is little known, while the white Czar ranges along the shores of the Arctic sea round the entire world. His scientific name, Thalarctos Maritimus, means Bear of the Sea.
He is also called the water bear. By this you will know that he is very much at home in the water. In fact cold baths are his specialty. With the thermometer registering twenty below zero, this hardy fellow will plunge into the Arctic sea and swim for hours among the floating ice cakes. He also dives with great ease, but rarely goes further than a day's journey inland.
His home is on the icefloe and he travels with it, going northward in the summer and coming back southward in the winter.
Like the walrus, the seal, the narwal, and some of the foxes, he follows the icefloe because it gives him such good eating.
He lives upon seals both small and large, walrus calves, and dead whales, and goes ashore for roots and plants to vary his diet.
The Eskimos sometimes hunt him on the icefloes with their dogs and it makes exciting sport, in which the dogs often come to grief. When cornered or wounded, the white Czar is a terrible fighter.
This bear, who is sometimes seen in zoos is a tall lank fellow and always snow white. His coat never changes its color. Many of the arctic animals and birds are snow white to correspond with the snowfields.
The specimen of Thalarctos Maritimus which Eiseeyou met on that cold arctic morning, afterwards measured fifty inches at the shoulders and seven feet in length. His weight was probably about six hundred pounds. When we add to this the fact that he is as quick as a cat, and can strike a blow that will crush a man's skull, it will readily be seen that he is no mean adversary.
White Ursus is longlegged and slab sided, tall at the shoulders and with a rather snaky head. His jaws are very powerful and his claws long and terrible. His feet are covered with hair on the bottom, so his track is very large.
For three hours after leaving his friends all went well with Eiseeyou. He located two small herds of musk ox and was well pleased with his observations.
Presently Eiseeyou spied another of those strange rocky mountains rising abruptly from the barrens. It was just such a hill as that upon which they had made their kill.
As it afforded a good lookout, he began slowly ascending. Once at the top he would be able to see all the Omingmongs in five miles.
Midway on the mountainside was a large boulder perhaps twenty feet in height. As it was immediately in his path Eiseeyou clambered carelessly around it. He did not expect to meet any game either large or small so was not taking his usual precautions. As he rounded the boulder on the upper side his black hair fairly stood up and his usually steady nerves began quivering strangely as he encountered a mighty polar bear who was standing on his hindlegs, his fore paws resting upon the body of a dead musk ox. The bear, much incensed that his meal had been so unceremoniously interrupted, greeted Eiseeyou with an angry snarl.
It would have been the better part of valor on Eiseeyou's part to have retreated a little before opening fire on the monster. Then if his shots were not effective, he might at least get in some more or run for it. But Eiseeyou was so paralyzed with fright that his usually keen wits forsook him.
He obeyed the hunter's first instinct and that was to shoot.
Quick as a flash he raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired.
But his hands were cold, and his gloves were bungling, and the bullet which had been intended for the great bear's brain glanced off his skull merely stunning him for an instant. Seeing that his first shot had not killed the monster, Eiseeyou fired again—this time at the heart and broke a shoulder instead.
By this time Bruin probably thought it was his turn, and with a blow quicker than lightning he struck the rifle from Eiseeyou's hand with his still undisabled arm and at the same time caught the intrepid hunter to his shaggy breast.
Eiseeyou had just presence of mind enough left as the bear seized him to draw his hunting knife and sink it deep into the bear's sides. Luckily for him it found the heart.
But one of these mighty bears will put forth great exertions even after being shot through the heart.
Tighter and tighter the mighty arm gripped him while Eiseeyou struggled with all his might to free himself. If the bear had possessed both arms, he could have crushed the hunter in a very few seconds.
But even as it was Eiseeyou felt his ribs cracking. His eyes fairly bulged from his head. His breath was entirely squeezed out of him and with a snap like the report of a pistol, his right arm with which he was holding his own body away from that of the bear snapped.
Finally it grew dark about Eiseeyou. He had a queer faint feeling and his ears rang strangely.
But just as he reached the point of his last ounce of resistance the strength of the Czar gave out and they collapsed together and rolled on the snow beside the dead musk ox.
Five minutes later Eiseeyou raised himself painfully on his elbow and looked about him. He had fainted with the pain from his broken arm, but the bear was motionless and apparently dead. Eiseeyou reached over cautiously and touched his nose. It was already growing cold.
Yes, he had won the fight, but at a terrible price. One of his ribs was broken and he was so sore that he could scarcely draw a long breath. His right arm was broken. It was thirty below zero and night was coming on in a few hours. He was so weak he could not stand and his companions and the three komatiks were hourly going further from him. They would not expect him to overtake them until towards night. Then it would be too late for them to turn back and look for him. Besides, they could not find him in a day's search unless they should be very successful in tracking him. In the meantime he must keep from freezing.
Eiseeyou's plight looked desperate, but he was not discouraged.
A white man under those circumstances would have frozen, but not so the hardy Eskimo. For several minutes he sat upon the body of the dead bear whose white coat had cost him such a price. Then a grin overspread his pleasant countenance. No, he was not beaten.
He would win out yet, and what a hero he would be in Eskimo Town!
First he fortified himself against the cold of the coming night by eating as much raw Omingmong as he could hold. Then he ate some snow to slake his thirst. So far so good, but how would he protect himself against the cold arctic night?
He got down on his knees and carefully examined the ground on which the white bear lay. Then he began digging the snow away from under him on the lee side with his hunting knife.
In half an hour he had excavated a hole large enough to admit his body. Then he crawled in, and with the same trusty knife scraped the snow over him, first pulling the long white pelage of the bear about him. Finally the friendly wind blew the snow over the place, entirely covering him and soon he was fairly warm. His broken arm pained him so he could not sleep soundly but he dozed the arctic night away in safety where his white brother would have died merely from the cold.