THE POLAR liBAtt. 7^ 



bear, armed with a simple lance ? " Pallas takes notice of an 

 assertion respecting the ease with which the polar bear, like 

 the seal, may be killed by a blow on the nose ; and he ob- 

 serves that a young animal which he kept alive during one 

 winter, was quickly enraged by slight blows on the muzzle, 

 and would then cover the injured part with his hand, or even 

 hide his head with both his fore-feet : but he quotes a state- 

 ment of Marten's, to the effect that the polar bear will sustain 

 severe wounds on the head without fatal injury : and in the 

 specimen now alive at the Zoological Gardens there may be 

 observed a cicatrix on one side of the muzzle, which is appa- 

 rently the effect of a severe blow. Pallas's young bear was 

 exceedingly impatient at being touched about the ears or tail. 

 He seemed a dull sluggish animal except when irritated; then, 

 as if by a sudden impulse, he exhibited most prompt but con- 

 fused motions, standing erect on his hind feet, and attempt- 

 ing to tear with his teeth. When threatened, he snarled with 

 a hissing noise and a fierce expression of the eyes. When 

 enraged and in combat, or unwillingly dragged by his chain, 

 he uttered a graver and louder roar, but never howled like 

 the common bear : he preferred fish and frozen meat to fresh 

 meat, — holding this food between his feet upon the ground as 

 he tore it. He never refused, however, any carcase; and the 

 Dutch observed the polar bears devouring the bodies of their 

 own species that had been slain. But he ate sparingly and 

 not greedily, licking his food a long time. For drink he swal- 

 lowed snow in large quantities and with great avidity, and 

 lapped water. He swallowed also hay and straw, which was 

 afterwards found in a small quantity quite undigested in his 

 stomach. When sleeping, he generally covered his nose with 

 his right paw ; and seemed most lively when the cold was 

 most intense. From Pallas's observation respecting the 

 condition of the vegetable substances in the stomach of his 

 bear, it might be supposed that this species was purely car- 

 nivorous ; but it must be remembered that these substances 

 were of the most undigestible nature. Tn the Parisian mena- 

 gerie a polar bear was fed on bread only, consuming six 

 pounds in the day; and after subsisting on this diet five years, 

 it was nevertheless found extremely fat. 



In its choice of habitation the polar bear differs most from 

 the rest of the species. Instead of seeking concealment in the 

 depths of forests, it prefers the floating iceberg and the 

 open sea, its powers of swimming peculiarly adapting it to 

 that sphere of existence. It rarely frequents the coasts of 

 the Frozen Ocean, and does not descend to the eastern bound- 



