180 THE NATURAL HISTOEY EETIEW, 



The Innults or Esquimaux have a great respect for the polar bear, 

 and tell many interesting anecdotes of its sagacity. " In August," they 

 say, " every fine day, the walrus makes its way to the shore, draws his 

 " huge body up on the rocks, and basks in the sun. If this happens 

 " near the base of a cliif, the ever watchful bear takes advantage of 

 " the circumstance to attack this formidable game in this way. The 

 " bear mounts the clijEF, and throws down upon the animal's head a 

 " large rock, calculating the distance and the curve with astonishing 

 " accuracy, and thus crushing the thick, bullet proof skuU. If the 

 " walrus is not instantly killed — simply stunned, — the bear rushes 

 " down to it, seizes the rock, and hammers away at the head till the 

 " skull is broken. A fat feast follows. Unless the bear is very 

 " hungry, it eats only the blubber of the walrus, seal, and whale." 



Capt. Hall gives an excellent figure of a large bear, sitting on its 

 haunches, and having in its fore-paws a great mass of rock which 

 it is in the act of throwing down upon the head of an unsuspi- 

 cious walrus. This will, no doubt, prove conclusive to many of 

 his readers, and remove any doubts which they might otherwise 

 have felt about the story. Moreover, Dr. Eae heard a very similar 

 account from an Esquimaux in whom he had good reason to feel 

 great confidence, and who declared that he had actually seen a bear 

 throw a mass of ice on to the head of a walrus. "We confess that we 

 are hardly prepared to give the bear credit for so much sagacity, 

 though we cannot altogether reject a statement which appears to 

 rest on good authority. 



The following story is more satisfactory : — Capt. Hall had killed a 

 young bear, and thought that the Esquimaux would rejoice in his suc- 

 cess. He soon discovered this to be a mistaken idea. They always, 

 he found, avoided killing the young of a bear, until the old one was 

 dead, because the death of the olFspring *' made the mother a hun- 

 " dred-fold more terrible than she would otherwise be." They 

 feared, therefore, that the old bear would return and attack them in 

 the night, in order to avoid which they prudently took to flight. 



" After making a distance of some ten miles from where the bear 

 " was killed, and as we were making good progress homeward directly 

 " down the bay, all at once the dogs were turned by the driver 

 " sharply to the left, nearly, but not quite, half round, and directed 

 *' towards the south termination of Pugh Island, where we made our 

 " eighteenth encampment. Before we retired for the night, the 

 ■ ' sledge was stuck up on end in an ice crack, and the guns and 



