The _Pandora_ was highly favoured by the singularly open condition of Melville Bay; bergs proved plentiful, but no dreaded ice-floe impeded her progress. A change in the ice conditions was first noticeable while off the Gary Islands. And upon leaving the islands and proceeding toward Lancaster Sound, the _Pandora_ fell in with the ice the 20th of August while lying about thirty miles east of Cape Horsburgh. “Three bears being seen on the ice,” writes Captain Young, “I went away in the second cutter with Pirie and Beynen, and after shooting the old she-bear and one cub we succeeded in getting a rope around the larger cub and towing him to the ship. Now began a most lively scene. The bear was almost full grown, and it was with some difficulty we got him on board and tied down the ring-bolts with his hind legs secured; and notwithstanding this rough treatment he showed most wonderful energy in trying to attack any one who came within reach, and especially our dogs, who seemed to delight in trying his temper. He was at last secured on the quarter deck with a chain round his neck and under his fore arms, and soon began to feed ravenously on—I am sorry to have to write it—his own mother, who was speedily cut up and pieces of her flesh thrown to my new shipmate. I hope that he was only an adopted child, and the great difference between him and the other cub warranted this supposition, as, being three times the size of the other, he could not have been of the same litter.” A few days later we read, “Our new shipmate, the bear, made desperate struggles to get over the rail into the sea, but the chain was tightened, and at last he went to sleep.” On the 23d of August, a barrier of ice across Lancaster Sound obliged Captain Young to retrace his steps. Snow, sleet, and wind prevailed as they scudded onward, an ice blink frequently ahead; then the inevitable floe in streams and loose pieces, with the sea dashing over them as they flew between.