We all remember Captain Phipps’s (now Lord Mulgrave) last voyage of discovery to the north.  I accompanied the captain, not as an officer, but as a private friend.  When we arrived in a high northern latitude I was viewing the objects around me with the telescope which I introduced to your notice in my Gibraltar adventures.  I thought I saw two large white bears in violent action upon a body of ice considerably above the masts, and about half a league distance.  I immediately took my carbine, slung it across my shoulder, and ascended the ice.  When I arrived at the top, the unevenness of the surface made my approach to those animals troublesome and hazardous beyond expression:  sometimes hideous cavities opposed me, which I was obliged to spring over; in other parts the surface was as smooth as a mirror, and I was continually falling:  as I approached near enough to reach them, I found they were only at play.  I immediately began to calculate the value of their skins, for they were each as large as a well-fed ox:  unfortunately, at the very instant I was presenting my carbine my right foot slipped, I fell upon my back, and the violence of the blow deprived me totally of my senses for nearly half an hour; however, when I recovered, judge of my surprise at finding one of those large animals I have been just describing had turned me upon my face, and was just laying hold of the waistband of my breeches, which were then new and made of leather:  he was certainly going to carry me feet foremost, God knows where, when I took this knife (showing a large clasp knife) out of my side-pocket, made a chop at one of his hind feet, and cut off three of his toes; he immediately let me drop and roared most horribly.  I took up my carbine and fired at him as he ran off; he fell directly.  The noise of the piece roused several thousand of these white bears, who were asleep upon the ice within half a mile of me; they came immediately to the spot.  There was no time to be lost.  A most fortunate thought arrived in my pericranium just at that instant.  I took off the skin and head of the dead bear in half the time that some people would be in skinning a rabbit, and wrapped myself in it, placing my own head directly under Bruin’s; the whole herd came round me immediately, and my apprehensions threw me into a most piteous situation to be sure:  however, my scheme turned out a most admirable one for my own safety.  They all came smelling, and evidently took me for a brother Bruin; I wanted nothing but bulk to make an excellent counterfeit:  however, I saw several cubs amongst them not much larger than myself.  After they had all smelt me, and the body of their deceased companion, whose skin was now become my protector, we seemed very sociable, and I found I could mimic all their actions tolerably well; but at growling, roaring, and hugging they were quite my masters.  I began now to think that I might turn the general confidence which I had created amongst these animals to my advantage.