THE FOUR BEARS.
On first approaching, I imagined that a heap of snow had fallen from
the upper rocks on the dead ox, and advanced so close that I was only
twenty paces from it before discovering in my supposed snow-heap two
enormous white bears who were rending the body asunder with their
giant claws as one might rend a chicken, and were devouring it with
all the gusto of an appetite whetted by the frosty air.
To add to my dismay at this unexpected rencontre, I perceived close
by, some portions of a human body, half-devoured--red, raw, and
appalling!
A horror came over me, suggesting that this victim might be either
Paul Reeves or Hans Peterkin; and it was not until some time after,
that I was assured, by fragments of the dress which remained, that
the unfortunate was a Greenlander, whom they had crushed to death and
dragged away. Pausing in their banquet, these savage brutes, which
were of enormous size, uttered a hoarse growl, and while their black
nostrils seemed to snuff the breeze, their deep-set eyes surveyed me
ominously.
My gun had but a single barrel, thus if I killed one bear I might
fall a prey to the other before there was time to reload; and if my
first shot missed, my fate would be sealed by both, as they were
certain to crush and devour me between them!
Turning, I fairly fled up the rocks towards the three pinnacles,
pursued by the bears, whose progress was slow, as they were evidently
gorged by their double repast on the dead man and the musk-ox.
Twice I stumbled in my flight, and fell heavily on my hands and face.
My breath came thickly and fast, and my long seal-skin boots and
overalls, which were strapped up to a waistbelt, greatly incommoded
me; but love of life and dread of a horrible death are sharp
incentives to exertion and activity; thus I struggled to gain a cleft
in the rocks, from whence I might turn and shoot down these unwieldy
monsters at vantage and at leisure, while they trotted laboriously
after me, uttering a succession of deep and menacing growls.
I had left them nearly fifty yards behind, while clambering up the
slope, terrified every instant lest by slipping on the ice-covered
rocks I might roll down under their very paws. Already I was within
twenty feet of the cleft, beyond which the dazzling gleam of the
Aurora played, when a hoarser growl saluted my ears; and
there--there--above me in the cleft--in the very haven I was toiling
to reach, appeared a huge brown bear, squatted on his hams, licking
his great red lips, and quietly waiting my approach!
Bewildered by this new enemy, taken in front and rear, for a moment I
remained irresolute, with my rifle cocked, but not knowing which to
shoot before I met the rest with my weapon clubbed; and now to add
still more to my dismay and peril, a _fourth_ bear appeared,
advancing from another point!
The monster in the cleft above me, now began to utter hoarse and
savage roars, in anticipation of my destruction, which seemed
certain; for those northern bears are so cruel and rapacious, that
the female secludes her cubs (of which she never has more than two at
a litter) from the male, lest he should devour them during the first
month of their blindness. I leave the reader to judge of my emotion
on finding my single self opposed to _four_ such antagonists; for the
white Greenland bears are double the size of those melancholy looking
brown brutes whom one may see dancing in the streets at home, being
generally about twelve feet long.
I was blindly desperate, yet my heart did not entirely fail; and I
felt forcibly "how an influence beyond our control lays its strong
hand on every deed we do, and weaves its iron tissue of necessity."
Clambering up the flinty face of the rocks to elude the three,
finding footing where, under circumstances less exciting, I might
have found none, I ascended resolutely towards the bear which stood
in the cleft snuffing the air, roaring, and showing his glistening
teeth. Already his hot and fetid breath began to taint the air about
me. I was within six feet of him, when, taking an aim there was no
doubt would be true, I fired, and the conical ball pierced deeply
into his vast chest.
Maddened by pain, Bruin made a wild bound at me, but missed his mark,
as I crouched low; so he rolled, dead I suppose, to the bottom of the
rocks, in his progress tumbling over one of those which were in
pursuit of me. Springing into the cleft he had so lately occupied, I
hastened to reload, and defend my position, for only one brute at a
time could assail me, unless there were, as I feared, others among
the rocks in my rear.
Now what were my emotions on discovering that in my exertions, while
struggling up the rocks, the strap of my shot-belt had given way, and
that I had _lost_ it, with all my ammunition!
A wild perplexity filled my heart, and a cold perspiration burst over
my temples; but at that moment of desperation a happy thought
occurred to me.
Remembering that I had a long clasp-knife, which opened and shut with
a spring, I applied it in bayonet-fashion to my rifle, and with my
handkerchief lashed it hard and fast to the muzzle and ramrod head.
This was barely accomplished, when one of the bears had its fore-paws
on the edge of the rock whereon I stood, and by the light of the
stars I could see his fierce red eyes, his long white teeth, and
enormous claws, while burying my impromptu bayonet thrice in his
great broad breast, and then the blood flowed darkly over his pure
white coat. The wounds were not deep enough to kill him at once, so
uttering roar after roar, the infuriated bear scraped away with his
hind feet, making vigorous but ineffectual efforts to reach me, till
by a furious kick I drove one of his paws off the ledge of rock. The
other relaxed immediately, and then Bruin rolled like a great
featherbed to the bottom, about thirty feet below, where he moved no
more.
But in a moment a second bear took his place. Emotion almost
exhausted me; but in my confusion when charging him, fortunately my
knife was thrust into his right eye. He uttered a hideous cry,
between a bellow of rage and a moan of agony, and fell down the
rocks--also dead!
The weapon had evidently penetrated to the brain, and killed him.
A wild and joyous glow now filled my heart. It was a triumphant
emotion, a lust for destruction and revenge, after the terror I had
endured; and I believe that had a whole army of bears appeared, I
should, without fear, have encountered them--one by one.
Uttering a "hurrah" just as the fourth bear arrived at my feet, I was
about to charge him as I had done the others when--oh, terror!--the
knotting of my handkerchief gave way, and the knife dropped from the
muzzle of my gun, and fell to the bottom of the rocks.
Clubbing the weapon, I rained a torrent of blows upon the great head
of this new assailant, which seemed the largest and most ferocious of
them all, as he probably had neither partaken of the poor Greenlander
or of that most unlucky musk-ox, the slaying of which had no doubt
brought me into this perilous predicament; but my blows fell on his
fur-covered skull as harmlessly as they would have fallen on a bale
of cotton.
Furiously I struck with butt and barrel at his broad black nose and
great round paws, the deadly claws of which grasped the rock with the
tenacity of iron hooks. Bruin uttered neither roar nor other sound,
but concentrating all his energies, drew up his hams, made a vigorous
spring, and in a moment I was dashed to the ground--his hot and
horrible breath was in my nostrils and on my face, while his weight
pressed me down as he prepared to hug or crush me to death. But now
a gun-shot rang between the rocks of the deep chasm, and I found
myself suddenly freed. Pierced through the heart by a single
well-aimed ball, the bear rolled over me dead, a quivering mass of
flesh and fur!
So severely was I stunned by the shock of Bruin's attack, and so
confused by the whole combat, that some minutes elapsed before I had
sufficient strength or breath to thank my preserver, to whom I might
as well have spoken in Greek or Choctaw, as he proved to be a poor
Greenlander who had never heard a word of English before.