THE POLAR BEAR. 239 



and they may be seen at almost any time scampering 

 over the ice, seeking the tracks of the bears, which 

 they follow with the instinct of the jackal following 

 the lion ; not that thej^ try their strength against 

 these roving monarchs of the ice-fields, but, whenever 

 the bear catches a seal, the little fox comes in for a 

 share of the prey. Their food consists besides of an 

 occasional ptarmigan, (the Arctic grouse,) and if quick 

 in his spring he may be lucky enough to capture a 

 hare. In the summer they congregate about the 

 haunts of the birds, and luxuriate upon eggs. It is a 

 popular belief in Greenland that they gather enor- 

 mous stores of them for their winter provender, but 

 I have never witnessed in them any such evidence of 

 foresight. 



The bears, wandering continually through the night, 

 must needs have a hard struggle to live. During the 

 summer, the seal, which furnish their only subsistence, 

 crawl up on the ice, and are there easily caught ; but 

 in the winter they only resort to the cracks to breathe, 

 and, in doing so, barely put their noses above the 

 water, so that they are captured with difficulty. 

 Driven to desperation by hunger, the bear will some- 

 times invade the haunts of men, in search of the food 

 which their quick sense has detected. Our dogs, 

 during the early winter, kept them from our vicinity ; 

 but, when the dogs were gone, several bears made 

 their appearance. One of them came overland from 

 the Fiord, and approached the store-house from be- 

 hind the observatory, where Starr was engaged in 

 reading the scale of the magnetometer. The heavy 

 tread of the wild beast was heard through the still- 

 ness of the night, and, without much regard to the 

 delicate organization of the instrument which he was 



