200L0GY. — POLAR-BEAR. — ANECDOTES. 5^ 



piece as directed, and providentially shot the bear 

 through the head. The captain, by this prompt 

 assistance was preserved from being torn in pieces. 



On a more recent occasion, a commander of a 

 whale ship was in a similar danger. Captain Haw- 

 kins of the Everthorpe of Hull, when in Davis' 

 Strait, in July 1818, seeing a very large bear, took 

 a boat, and pushed off in pursuit of it. On reach- 

 ing it, the captain struck it twice with a lance in 

 the breast ; and, while in the act of recovering his 

 weapon for another blow, the enraged animal sprung 

 up, and seized him by the thigh, and threw him over 

 its head into the water. Fortunately it did not re- 

 peat its attack, but exerted itself to escape. This 

 exertion, when the attention of every one was di- 

 rected towards their captain, was not made in vain, 

 for it was allowed to swim away without further 

 molestation *. 



Various other accidents and adventures with 

 bears are familiar to the whale-fishers ; but the 

 above may be sufficient as illustrations of the cha- 

 racter of the animal. I shall only remark, with 

 regaKl to curious adventures, that, on one occasion, 

 a bear which was attacked by a boat's crew, in the 

 Spitzbergen Sea, made such a formidable resistance 

 that it was enabled to climb the side of the boat. 



• This account I received in a letter from Captain Bennet, 

 ef the X'^enerable of Hull. 



