THE AECTIC BEAR. 471 



prints showed that a bear had advanced over the snoAV 

 to the tent. 



These besiegers also paid repeated visits to our provi- 

 sions on land ; but they played our astronomers the worst 

 trick, for they carried off the measuring apparatus for 

 deciding the length of the base. The greatest evil for 

 sledge-travellers is, that however important a depot they 

 may make for provisions, they can never leave it secure 

 from these ferce of the ice. The best way is to hang a 

 sack upon an inaccessible wall of rock. The strength 

 which the bears possess in digging out anything that is 

 buried is astonishing. Covering over with frozen sand 

 and water is better than the heaviest stone, because it 

 blunts the bear's claws. 



In spite of their great numbers seldom more than 

 three (and that a family) are ever seen together.^ It is 

 always well understood that the old ones must be 

 killed first, for a she-bear deprived of her cubs is a ter- 

 rible adversary. If they are only wounded, she pushes 

 them before her or defends them with her own body, 

 though a cub will never hesitate to devour the flesh of its 

 mother. 



The ice-fields of its native home are pleasant to the 

 bear, and it will not willingly part from them. 



The whaler " Bienenkorb," which we visited in 1869, 

 had one in a cage on deck ; and when, from the strong- 

 motion of the ship, it caught sight of the ice, it began 

 to howl dismally. Indeed, the sight of the drift-ice 

 worked so powerfully on the creature, that they were 



^ Scoresl)y ve[tor(s that once on the coast of Greenland he saw 100 

 bears, of which at least twenty might have hecn kiilcil. 



