Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/490

 westerly passage; so, having reached a little below the latitude of Cape York, on the meridian of 73° 40´ without discovering any signs of ice, I changed my original purpose, and, altering the course of the schooner, struck directly across Melville Bay for Upernavik. The result proved the prudence of this change. In twenty-four hours we ran down nearly two degrees of latitude, and hauled in seven degrees of longitude, finding ourselves at noon of August 10th in latitude 74° 19´, longitude 66°, without having encountered any ice seriously to trouble us. The air still holding clear, we had no difficulty in avoiding the bergs.

The sea had by this time become very angry, and I was almost as anxious as I had been the year before, when entering the bay from the south. The atmosphere was, however, perfectly clear.

While bounding along, logging ten knots an hour, we almost ran over an immense polar bear, which was swimming in the open water, making a fierce battle with the seas, and seemingly desirous of boarding us. He was evidently much exhausted, and, seeing the vessel approach, doubtless had made at her in search of safety. The unhappy beast had probably allowed himself to be drifted off on an ice-raft which had gone to pieces under him in the heavy seas. Although these polar bears are fine swimmers, I much feared that the waves would in the end prove too much for this poor fellow, as there was not a speck of ice in sight on which he could find shelter. As we passed, he touched the schooner's side, and Jensen, who had seized a rifle, was in the act of putting an end to his career, when I arrested his hand. The beast was making such a brave fight for his life that I would not see him shot, more especially as the waves were running too high