The three sportsmen ran rapidly towards the animal, whom the firing had not disturbed; he seemed to be enormous, and without calculating the dangers of the attack, they began to rejoice in their conquest. Arrived within reasonable distance they fired again; the bear, mortally wounded, gave a great jump and fell at the foot of the mound. Dick threw himself upon it. "That bear wasn't difficult to kill," said the doctor. "Only three shots," added Bell in a tone of disdain, "and he's down." "It's very singular," said Johnson. "Unless we arrived at the very moment when it was dying of old age," said the doctor, laughing. So speaking, the sportsmen reached the foot of the mound, and, to their great stupefaction, they found Dick with his fangs in the body of a white fox. "Well, I never!" cried Bell. "We kill a bear and a fox falls," added the doctor. Johnson did not know what to say. "Why!" said the doctor, with a roar of laughter, "it's the refraction again!" "What do you mean, Mr. Clawbonny?" asked the carpenter. "Why, it deceived us about the size as it did about the distance. It made us see a bear in a fox's skin." "Well," answered Johnson, "now we've got him, we'll eat him." Johnson was going to lift the fox on to his shoulders, when he cried like Bell--"Well, I never!" "What is it?" asked the doctor. "Look, Mr. Clawbonny--look what the animal's got on its neck; it's a collar, sure enough." "A collar?" echoed the doctor, leaning over the animal. A half worn-out collar encircled the fox's neck, and the doctor thought he saw something engraved on it; he took it off and examined it. "That bear is more than twelve years old, my friends," said the doctor; "it's one of James Ross's foxes, and the collar has been round its neck ever since 1848." "Is it possible?" cried Bell. "There isn't a doubt about it, and I'm sorry we've shot the poor animal. During his wintering James Ross took a lot of white foxes in his traps, and had brass collars put round their necks on which were engraved the whereabouts of his ships, the _Enterprise_ and the _Investigator_, and the store magazines. He hoped one of them might fall into the hands of some of the men belonging to Franklin's expedition. The poor animal might have saved the lives of the ship's crews, and it has fallen under our balls."