him. Other works of this author are "The Hours, and other Poems," and
"After Icebergs with a Painter," from which this selection is taken.

1. We have just passed a fragment of some one of the surrounding icebergs
that had amused us. It bore the resemblance of a huge polar bear, reposing
upon the base of an inverted cone, with a twist of a seashell, and
whirling slowly round and round. The ever-attending green water, with its
aerial clearness, enabled us to see its spiral folds and horns as they
hung suspended in the deep.

2. The bear, a ten-foot mass in tolerable proportion, seemed to be
regularly beset by a pack of hungry little swells. First, one would take
him on the haunch, then whip back into the sea over his tail and between
his legs. Presently a bolder swell would rise and pitch into his back with
a ferocity that threatened instant destruction. It only washed his satin
fleece the whiter.

3. While Bruin was turning to look the daring assailant in the face, the
rogue had pitched himself back into his cave. No sooner that, than a very
bulldog of a billow would attack him in the face. The serenity with which
the impertinent assault was borne was complete. It was but a puff of
silvery dust, powdering his mane with fresher brightness. Nothing would be
left of bull but a little froth of all the foam displayed in the fierce
onset. He too would turn and scud into his hiding place.

4. Persistent little waves! After a dash, singly, all around, upon the
common enemy, as if by some silent agreement underwater, they would all
rush on at once, with their loudest roar and shaggiest foam, and overwhelm
poor bear so completely that nothing less might be expected than to behold
him broken in four quarters, and floating helplessly asunder. Mistaken