1938-10-14 — Page 25

THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, OCTOBER 14, 1988-

Twilight Of The Bears

(Continued from 'Page 11 out upon the white snow of the floes.

In five minutes the bears were clear of the walrus herd.

The female bear had lost a good deal of blood from her wounds, as had the male bear, too-warlus tusks, with a couple of thousand pounds weight or so to back them, cut deep and had never ceased licking her wounds when she stop- ped.

:

But her mate, grand old beast that he was, held pther views. Wounds were nothing to him..

While she slept, therefore, he went to stalk a hooded seal, lying flat and inert upon the snow, and fine was his approach. He hugged every snowheap, melted belly-flat into every hump and hillock; but The seal it was all for nothing.

dived into a blow-hole which she .had in the ice when he was still

twenty yards distant.

*

In more or less time-time in those parts is only measured by the period a beast can keep under water without "lunging up”—a blue seal, which was not blue, but grey, came up to blow off steam. His head was absurd-so small. His length, however, was almost exactly one foot longer than the bear's length. In spite of that, though, the bear lunged as only a Polar bear can lunge-quick as of a cat-the seal, all ten feet him, turned an instantaneous and complete somersault, and seal!

waters.

no

Only a snarl of falling

Later, when he had picked up his mate again and gone another ten miles shorewards, and they had lain, down. to sleep together, the old male bear woke up with upon the northern restlessness him and slouched off, and waited The by another blow-hole.. owner of that breathing-space must have possessed an alternate ventilation shaft somewhere else, during for it was a full hour, which the bear moved rather less

+

than the floe, he was on, before a bearded, smallish head poked 'up, and-biff!

over

The bear made no mistake this time. His great paw swept round and, bodily, he scooped the giant of all seals, scaling six hundred pounds, splashing and sliding and shining wet, yards. That is the out upon the ice, great bear's way.

Gradually and in such a manner the two bears worked their way to- wards shore, reached the "shore made pack," crossed it, and so the land.

the ever-

Here, high among lasting glaciers, lit by the light of the midnight sun, the she-bear male dug out her den, the old looking on.

a

But he was not for. long un- challenged. There came quickly hurricane of snorts, like the A whirl challenge of sentries.

then а of snow up the slope; rising column of it as a cloud of hooked broad, plunging backs, horns, and dozens of bulging eyes came at him, and the whole was like the thunder of charge.

a

A scene at the Valley during the Races last Saturday. ("Mail" photo).

And then, almost under his black muzzle-actually under the foam- ing nostrils of the oncoming herd.

The snow -a loud noise burst. exploded. White shrapnel whizzed White upwards and outwards. cavalry

snow lumps flew all over the place White powder blinded the eyes of the charge-maddened beasts.

The herd parted momentarily. One division swept by the bear's right, the other on left; both so close that he could have touched the long, shaggy, Then the herd tossing coats.

The herd of musk oxen, feeding somewhere out of sight up the slope, had scented the bear-their greatest foe-and charged down upon him.

Any one who has stood in the stifling African swamp and felt Cape the gound shake as the buffalo herd came on can guess alone what the old bear stood and faced in silence.

His mate, out of sight now in. the hole of her own digging, re- mained out of sight.

He himself could not run. There was nowhere to go and none to help him. He faced it-death, utter and annihilating.

Before you could breathe, al- most, they were on him-within He lifted a little, ten yards, absurdly like some grossly magni- ̄fied, ̈ ́ ́· gigantic ferret, to strike.

old.

his

came

thundered on, and the old bear ́down on all-fours again. He had been saved by a miracle, by the bursting upwards on, wing of a covey of ptarmigan from under the snow, where they had. been lying buried in their tunnels till the roar of the charging herd literally burst them into the air with fright,

Then the old bear turned and, heavily and slowly, sampled down' relentless the slope to face the

dark of the long, silent ` winter.

night.

"I can tell

WHITE

HORSE blindfold

Diplomas to the graduates of the Salvation Work training were distri- buted at the Graduation coremony at the Confucian Hall last Monday. ("Mail" photo).

Sthletle meeting

Mõnday.

it's equal to a fine liqueur

Sole Agents for South China : JARDine Matheson And Company LTD.