112 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



consumed for Tobiesen the contents of two barrels of salt fish, 

 which he had left behind in a deserted hut. 



The flesh of the bear, if he is not too old or has not recently- 

 eaten rotten seal-flesh, is very eatable, being intermediate in 

 taste between pork and beef The flesh of the young bear is 

 white and resembles veal. The eating of the liver causes 

 sudden illness. 



Although, as already mentioned, the Polar bear sometimes 

 drifts to land and is killed in the northernmost part of Norway, 

 his skin is not enumerated by Othere among the products of 

 Finmark. It thus appears to have become known in Europe 

 first after the Norwegians' discovery of Iceland and Greenland, 

 and was at first considered an extraordinary rarity. A Norwegian 

 of importance, who had emigrated to Iceland, and there suc- 

 ceeded in getting hold of a female bear with two young, sent 

 them in 880 to the King of Norway, and got in return a small 

 vessel laden with wood. This animal had not then been seen in 

 Norway before. The old sagas of the north are said to relate 

 further that the priest Isleif, in order to be nominated bishop of 

 Iceland, in the year 1056 presented a white bear to Kejsar 

 Henrik. In the year 1064 the King of Denmark gave in 

 exchange for a white bear from Greenland a well-equipped, full 

 rigged, trading vessel, a considerable sum of money, and a 

 valuable gold ring.^ 



Marco Polo also says in his account of the country of the 

 peace-loving nomad Tatar tribes living in the north, that there 

 are to be found there white bears most of thera twenty hands long, 

 large black foxes, wild asses (reindeer), and a little animal called 

 "rondes," from which we get the sable fur.- As the Polar 

 bear is only to be found on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, these 

 statements prove that in the thirteenth century the northernmost 

 part of Asia was inhabited or at least visited by hunters. Olaus 

 Magnus even describes the bear's mode of life not incorrectly, 

 with the addition that it was customary to present their skins 

 to the altars of cathedrals and parish churches in order that 

 the feet of the priest might not freeze during mass.^ The Polar 

 bear however first became more generally known in Western 

 Europe by the Arctic voyages of the English and Dutch, and its 

 price has now sunk so much that its skin, which was once con- 

 sidered an article of extraordinary value, is now, in adjusting 

 accounts between the owners of a vessel and the walrus-hunters, 

 reckoned at from twenty-five to fifty Scandinavian crowns 

 (say twenty-eight to fifty-six shillings). 



1 Grdnlands Mstorkhe Mindesmarker. Kjobenhavn, 1838, III. p. 384. 

 ^ Ramusio, Part II., Venice, 1583, p. 60. 

 ^ 01. Magnus. Rome edition, 1555, p. 621. 



