NOTE- BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 129 



The ship was locked in the ice, and, early one morn- 

 ing, the man at the mast-head gave notice that three 

 bears were ajDproaching over the frozen sea, invited, 

 doubtless, by the scent of some blubber of a walrus, 

 killed by the crew a few days before, which had been set 

 on fire and was burning on the ice. The visitors proved 

 to be a she-bear and her two cubs, the latter nearly as 

 large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, drew 

 away part of the flesh of the walrus that remained un- 

 consumed and devoured it. Then the crew from the 

 ship cast great lumps of walrus-flesh, which still re- 

 mained, to them. These the old bear fetched away one 

 by one, laying every lump before her cubs, dividing it 

 into shares and reserving only a small portion for herself. 

 As the unsuspecting mother was fetching away the last 

 piece, the men levelled their muskets at the cubs and 

 shot them both dead. They then wounded the dam, 

 but not mortally. The rest must be told in the words of 

 the relater: — 



It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, 

 to have marked the aiFtctionate concern expressed by this poor 

 beast in the dying moments of her expiring young. Though she 

 was sorely wounded, and could but just crawl to the place where 

 they lay, she carried the lump of flesh she had fetched away, as 

 she had done others before, tore it in pieces, and laid it down 

 before them ; and when she saw that they refused to eat, she laid 

 her paws first upon one, and then upon the other, and endeavoured 

 to raise them up ; all this while it was pitiful to hear her moan. 

 When she found she could not stir them, she went off; and when 

 she had got at some distance, looked back and moaned ; and that 

 not availing her to entice them away, she returned, and smelling 

 round them, began to lick their wounds. She went off a second 

 time as before ; and having crawled a few paces, looked again 

 behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But still her cubs 

 not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with 

 signs of inexpressible fondness went round one, and round the 

 other, pawing them and moaning. Finding at last that they were 

 cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship, and growled 

 a curse upon the murderers, which they returned with a volley 



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