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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The polar bear is of less interest — a eireumpolar cosmopolitan, although 

 seldom found far from the sea ice. In winter these bears are apt to appear 

 anywhere along the coast, but in summer their occurrence depends largely 

 upon the proximity of pack ice. Around Cape Parry in August we saw 

 within two days fourteen bears roaming about the small rocky islands, evi- 

 dently marooned when the ice left the beach. 



The polar bears seem to be most abundant around Cape Parry and the 

 southern end of Banks Island, very rarely passing through Dolphin and 

 Union Strait into Coronation Gulf. They are often seen swimming far out 

 at sea. While whaling about twenty miles off Cape Bathurst (the nearest 

 land) and about five miles from the nearest large ice mass, we saw a polar 

 bear which paddled along quite unconcernedly until he winded the ship, 

 then veered away, heading out toward the ice pack. 



As a field for short trips of investigation, the region east of Point Barrow 

 can hardly be recommended, as after four years in the country, the only 

 available means of exit last summer was a fortunate chance to ship for a 

 three months' cruise on a whaling ship. And certainly we should not fail 

 to mention the bowhead whale as the greatest game animal of the Arctic. 

 The whaling industry which a few years ago kept a fleet employed in the 

 western Arctic, once wintering fifteen ships at Herschel Island, and which 

 directly or indirectly was responsible for the advent of civilization along 

 these shores, with its concomitant effects upon population and fauna, has 

 now declined to casual vessels which combine whaling with trading. The 

 bowheads are far from being extinct however, and the single ship and 

 schooner which whaled east of Point Barrow during the past summer 



Bear skins drving in the sun at Baillie Island for the Museum collection 



