The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-05-06
"NANOOKS0AnT---
THE POLAR BEAR
Peary Gives Thrilling Account AZ
Arctic Big Game Huntinq

bear hunt appears in the last instaI
meut of Peary's North Pole Story n
Hampton's. 1t begins: "After faw
hours sleep we started, straight as
crow flies, across the eastern end ~
the great glacial fringe, headed for
the mouth of Clements Markham in.
let. Reaching the mouth of the in.
let, we kept on down it's eastern Shore
finding very good going; for the tides
rising in the creek next the shore
had saturated the everything snow
then freezing had formed a narrow
but smooth surface for the sledges
A 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 centre of the ford, and following
the direction of his finger we saw a
cream-colored spot leisurely moving
toward the mouth of the ford-a
polar bear!
"While I stood in front of the dogs
with whip in each hand, to keep
them from dashing away-for the Es-
kimo dog knows the meaning of nan
ooksoah' as we'll as his master-the
! three men were throwing things off
| the sledges as if they were crazy
/, when the sledges were empty
| lowered the whips and stood to one
side. Oob-loo-yahs team shot by me,
with -loo-yah at the up-standers.
E-ging-wah came next, and l threw
myself on his sledge as it flew past.
| Behind us came Koo-la-too-nah with
the third team.
1.-THE bear had heard us, and ~
making for the opposite shore
ford with prodigious boz
jumped to the up-standers of the ii.
ing 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
covered surface of the ford.
"Oob-loo-yah, with crazy team
and only himself at the up-standers,
distanced the rest of us, arriving at
the father shore almost as soon as
the leaping bear. He loosed his dogs
Immediately, and we could see the
bear in the distance, followed by min
ute dots that looked hardly larger
than mosquitoes swarming up the
steep slope.
ga most peculiar circumstance,
commented on by E-ging-wah as we
few along, was that this bear, con-
trary to the invariable custom of
| bears in Eskimo land, did not stop
when the dogs came toward him, but
kept right on travelling. This to
E-ging-wah was almost certain proof
that the great devil himself-the ter
rible Tor-nar-suk-was in that bear.
At the thought of chasing the devil,
my sledge companion grew even more
excited.
When we reached the western
shore of the ford, up which we had
seen from a distance the bear and
Oob-loo-yah's dogs slowly climbing,
both we and our dogs we're pretty
we'll winded.
"a little farther on we came to a
deep canon, 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 PERCEPTIONS
for even an Eskimo to descend, and
we could not see the bear. He was
evidently under some projecting ledge
on our side.
Moving up the canon to find a
place of descent, heard E-ging-wah
shout that the bear had started down
the canon and was climbing up the
other side. Hurrying back through
rocks, suddenly saw the beast, per-
haps hundred yards away, and
raised my rifle. But I must have
been too much winded to take good
aim, for though l fired too shots at
him, the bear kept right on up the
canon side. Surely Tor-nar-suk was
in him!
II found that I had given the
stumps of both my feet-my toes
were frozen off at Fort Conger in
1S99-some pretty severe blows
against the rocks; and as they were
complaining with vehemence, l de-
cided not to follow the bear any
farther.
Handing my rife to E-ging-wah, l
told him and Koo-la-too-nah to go
after the bear while 1 went back
down the bluffs to the sledges and
followed along the bay ice. But be-
fore I 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 ravine, and stopped
the sledge there and waited. In
little while l saw my men slowly
working their way down the rayine.
The dogs which had been in at the
death were attached to the bear, as
If he had been a sledge, and they
were dragging him after them. IL
was an interesting scene; the steep
and rocky ravine in its torn mantle
of snow, the excited dogs strainins
ahead with their unusual burden, the
inert cream-colored form of the great
bear. and the shouting and gesticulat-
ing Eskimos."