BEAR FAMILY 



87 



swimmer of the bear family. It has been met 

 with in the open sea forty miles from the nearest 

 shore, and Peary saw the tracks of one. along 

 the course of a lead covered with young ice, 

 more than 200 miles from land. 



Another remarkable fact recently discovered is 

 that the Polar Bear swims entirely with its fore- 

 legs, the hindpart of its body being well down 

 in the water. It is possibly the only quadruped 

 which swims in this fashion. 



Like all Bears, the Polar Bear has poor eye- 

 sight, and relies mainly on its nose for scouting. 

 Its sense of smell is very keen, and it can readily 

 detect the presence of concealed food on land 

 and of fish in a harbor. It is very fond of pork, 



diverting. These sounds rasped upon us just 

 as we were about to draw our toes up to the 

 fire for a smoke, and the thrill sent through 

 our little party was electric. 'A Bear! A 

 Bear ! ' we all shouted together, grabbing our 

 rifles and rushing blindly out into the night. 

 . . . I sent two shots after a big white fellow 

 in full retreat over the snow. 



" The bear had carefully nosed his way up on 

 top of the slanting roof of the lean-to, and on 

 up to the smoking chimney whence came the ap- 

 petizing odor of roast ham. Evidently a whitif 

 of smoke had caused him to lose his balance, 

 and he slid backward, scratching with all his 

 might to hold his footing. 



POLAR BEAR AT HOME 

 The floating ice that forms this Polar Bear's couch is just to his liking 



especially fat pork ; and Felix Riesenberg, who 

 had a hunting camp on the shores of Virgo 

 Haven, opposite the old Andree base, thus re- 

 lates how the odor of roast ham once brought 

 an inquisitive Bruin to his death : 



" Morton, who was the official chef, busied 

 himself in an attempt to roast some pieces of 

 ham over the glowing coals, while Paul and I 

 sat impatiently by, awaiting the completion of 

 the dainty morsels and ready to sandwich them 

 between pieces of hardtack. On the stove we 

 had a pot of coffee steaming merrily. At the 

 •conclusion of this modest refreshment we pro- 

 posed to crawl into our bags. 



" The noise of sharp claws against a roof of 

 frozen tar-paper is peculiar, and the thud of a 

 heavv body launched from nowhere and scratch- 

 ing its way over your lonely housetop away 

 up in the Arctic regions is, to say the least. 



" Roast ham proving a tempting bait for Bear, 

 we kept our surplus pork trimming sizzling in 

 the stove for many days." 



At length the Bear came back, and this time 

 received his quietus from the rifles of the party. 



The flesh of the Polar Bear is welcome food 

 for the hunter ; its teeth and claws are used as 

 ornaments ; its fat furnishes the Bear's grease 

 of commerce ; and its pelt serves as material for 

 garments for the Eskimos and is mounted in 

 the form of robes and rugs. A fine specimen 

 of the latter has been known to fetch $1,000 in 

 New York. 



Both Carl Hagenbeck and J. \\'. Bostock. the 

 well-known animal trainers, agree that the Polar 

 Bear is harder to train than any other kind of 

 Bear. The former says that " at certain sea- 

 sons of the year they become extraordinarily 

 restless and intractable," and the latter, that 



