The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1910-03-22
PEARY'S POLAR
BEAR CHASE.
Exciting Incident Of His Jour-
ney to the North Pole.
HOT PURSUIT IN SLEDGES.
Explorer Tells How Men and Dogs
Were Electrified by Sharp Sighted
Eskimo's Cry of "Nanooksoah!" "a
Polar 6ear}-odd Feature of Hunt.

A most graphic account of a polar
bear hunt appears in the April INSTALL
ment of Commander Robert e. Peary's
story of the Discovery of the North
Pole" In Hampton's Magazine. 1t be-
gins:
after few hours sleep we started,
straight as crow flies, across the
eastern end of the great glacial fringe,
headed for the mouth of Clements
Markham inlet. Reaching the mouth
of the inlet, we kept on down it's east
ern shore, finding very good going, for
the tides rising in the crack next the
shore had saturated the everything
snow; then, freezing, had formed a
narrow but smooth surface for the
sledges. little farther ON we were
electrified by a tense whisper from the
ever sharp sighted E-ging-wah
'Nanooksoah!
''He was pointing excitedly toward
the center of the ford, and, following
the direction of his finger, we saw a
cream colored spot leisurely moving
toward the mouth of the florida polar
bear.
''Whiie l stood in front of the dogs
with a whip in each hand to keep
them from dashing away, for the Es-
kimo dog knows the meaning of ma
nooksoah' as well as his master. the
three men were throwing things off
the sledges as if they were crazy,
Hot After the Bear.
"When the sledges were empty
lowered the whips and stood to one
side. Oob-loo-yah's team shot by me,
with Oob-loo-yah at the upstanders.
E-ging- wah came next, and l threw
myself on his sledge as it few past
Behind us came Koo-la -too-nah with
the third team.
1.-THE bear had heard US and was
making for the opposite shore of the
ford with prodigious bounds. ! jump
ed to the upstanders of the flying
sledge, leaving E-ging wah to throw
himself on the bottom and get his
breath, and away we all went. wild
with excitement, across the snow COW
cred surface of the ford.
"Oob-loo-yah, with crazy team and
only himself at the upstanders. dis
farther shore almost as soon as the
leaping bear. He Ioosed his dogs i'm
mediately, ard we could see the bear
in the distance, followed by minute
dots that looked hardly larger than
mosquitoes swarming up the slope
Chasing the Devil.
"a most peculiar circumstance, COM
mented on by E-ging-wah as we few
along, was that this bear, contrary to
the invarisble custom of bears in Els
kimo land, did not stop when the dogs
came toward him, but kept right on
travelling This to E-gingwah was al
most certain proof that the great devil
himself-the terrible nar-suk- was
in that bear. At tbe thought of chas
ing the devil my sledge companion
grew even more excited.
when we reached the western shore
Of the fiord, up which we had seen
from distance the bear and 0ob-loo
yah's dogs slowly climbing, both we
and our dogs were pretty well winded.
"a little farther on we came to a
deep canyon, and. as we could tell by
the sounds, the dogs and the bear were
at the bottom. But where we stood
the walls were too precinitous for even
an Eskimo to descend. and we could
~ kka 10
under some projecting ledge on our
side.
Its Escape From Peary.
Moving up the canyon to find
place Of descent, / heard E-ging-wah
shout that the bear had started down
the canyon ard was climbing up the
other side. Hurrying back through
the deep snow and over the rough
rocks, | suddenly saw the beast per-
haps hundred yards away and raised
much winded to take good aim, for,
though / fired two shots at him, the
bear kept right ON up the canyon side.
Surely Tor-nar-suk was In him!
Il found that had given the stumps
Of both my feet-my toes were frozen
of at Fort Conger IN 1899 some pref
ty severe blows against the rocks, and
as they were complaining with vehe
mence decided not TO follow the bear
any farther
tHanding my rife to E-ging wah,
told him. and Koo-la-too-nah to go after
the bear while | went back down the
bluffs to the sledges and followed
along the bay ice. But before had
gone far along the bay ice heard
shouting in the distance, and soon an
Eskimo appeared ON a summit and
waved his hand-a signal that they
had bagged the bear
Just ahead of me and abreast of
where the Eskimo had appeared was
the mouth of a ravine, and stopped
the sledge there ana waited. In
little while / saw my men slowly
working their way down the ravine
Tho darc which had hnnu I'm af ff1o