Page:Narrative of the extraordinary adventures of four Russian sailors (2).pdf/13

 no less than two hundred and fifty rein-deer, besides a great number of blue and white foxes. The flesh of these animals served them also for food, and their skins for cloathing, and other necessary preservatives against the intense coldness of a climate so near the pole.

They killed, however, only ten white bears in all, and that not without the utmost danger ; for these animals, being prodigiously strong, defending themselves with astonishing vigour and fury. The first our men attacked designedly ; the other nine they slew in defending themselves from their assaults ; for some of these creatures even ventured to enter the outer room of the hut, in order to devour them. It is true, that all the bears did not shew (if it may be allowed the expression) equal intrepidity ; either owing to some being less pressed by hunger, or to their being by nature less carnivorous than the others ; for some of them, which entered the hut, immediately betook themselves to flight on the first attempt of the sailors to drive them away. A