*!. 



XX 



A SEALSKIN JACKET AT HOME 



^^E now leave dry land, though 



Jr when one follows the Polar 



. , jm Bear over the caked ice, 



f% m who can tell if it is earth, 



» \ # rock, or frozen Avater that 



f^^.-...._ lies underneath. 



,^^^. \d^^J^J^^ I '''^'^^® ^^"^^^ ^^ fin-footed 

 J^^^^^^ „ti^e^^: I Avaternien ^Pinnipeds') live 



oji tlie frozen sea edges and 

 islands from Labrador around the north coast to the 

 Pacific Ocean. The Polar Bear spends the chief part 

 of his time on the land, going in fishing and swimming 

 for pleasure ; but these watermen pass most of their 

 time in the Avater where their food is, floating with 

 drifting ice floes, and hauling up on the islands to rest 

 for a time in summer when their cubs are born." 



'' Why do you say liauling up ? " asked Nat. '' Haven't 

 these beasts legs, and can't they walk? In my spelling 

 book it says haul means to pull or drag." 



" It says rightly," answered Olaf, " for these beasts 

 drag themselves when on land, and their legs are not as 

 the limbs of Deer or Bear, but flippers set deep in the 

 flesh, sliaped half like the fins of a fish. To see them 

 it seems impossible that they should move at all, eitlier 



282 



