Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/86

 seeming deep grief, lying in the snow by his side. Then she yielded to the urge of hunger, and, sad to relate, made a good meal upon him. Having satisfied the gnawing at her vitals, she turned back towards the seashore where the white bears had been spending the last two months.

But hunting was poor in the land of Omingmong. The seals and walrus were all further south, where they were slowly following the first movements of the ice northward. So, as the hunting was poor and she was restless, being heavy with young, the Czarina started southward following upon the ice almost parallel with the three heavily loaded komatiks, upon one of which was the white coat of her mate. She did not go as far southward as they did, however, but stopped about ten miles north of Eskimo Town, and took up her abode in a cave in the side of a cliff which fringed the sea. Here she gave birth to two white cubs, blind and almost hairless.

Ordinarily while she was nursing the small bears, her mate would have hunted for her, but he was dead; so the responsibility