Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/97

 weather finally gave way to days of sunshine, and the three hunters planned their bear hunt.

On the morning in question, they set forth just as they had for the walrus hunt, with three komatiks and a supply of food.

But this time they were armed differently. Most of their harpoons they left behind, and instead they carried their high power rifles. In rare cases the white bear can be driven into the open water and harpooned from a kayak, but this is not the usual mode of hunting him.

The travelling on the icefloe was rather rough. Often they would come to a mighty berg which had been ended up and had frozen into the floe in that position; then they would have to go around it.

They had travelled perhaps five miles northward along the floe, when the dog team of Eiseeyou set up a yelping and rushed forward. They came almost immediately to an open hole in the ice between a couple of cakes. The hole showed evidence of artificial thawing about the edge.

Eiseeyou got off his komatik and after