the lance, and fell beneath the assailant, who placing both paws on his breast, opened two rows of tremendous teeth, and paused for a moment, as if to shew him all the horrors of his situation. At this critical instant, a sailor, rushing forward with only a scoop, succeeded in alarming the monster, who made off, leaving the captain without the slightest injury.
In 1788, Captain Cook, of the Archangel, when near the coast of Spitzbergen, found himself suddenly between the paws of a bear. He instantly called upon the surgeon who accompanied him to fire, which the latter did with such admirable promptitude and precision, that he shot the beast through the head, and delivered the captain. Mr Hawkins, of the Everthrope, in July 1818, having pursued and twice struck a large bear, had raised his lance for a third blow, when the animal sprang forward, seized him by the thigh, and threw him over its head into the water. Fortunately it used this advantage, only to effect its own escape. Captain Scoresby mentions a boat’s crew which attacked a bear in the Spitzbergen sea; but the animal having succeeded in climbing the sides of the boat, all the sailors threw themselves, for safety, into the water, where they hung by the gunwale. The victor entered triumphantly, and took possession of the barge, where it sat quietly, till it was shot by another party. The same writer mentions the ingenious contrivance of a sailor, who, being, pursued by one of these creatures, threw down
