442 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
at the door, firmly awaiting the animal’s approach. One of the 
men climbed up the chimney gun in hand. The bear marched 
on boldly to the hut. One shot from a musket knocked him 
over, and he was soon killed. In his stomach were found whole 
pieces of seal, with the skin and hair. On the 3oth, the sailors 
while at work re-fitting the ship, were interrupted by a_ bear 
coming boldly up to them. They all fled immediately 
into the hut. The bear followed, but a salute of three euns 
laid him dead upon the snow. This victory nearly cost 
the poor mariners their lives, for having cut up the creature, 
they cooked the liver, and ate it, but’ it proved poisonous, 
and some of them laid for hours in a state of insensibility. 
In Manby’s voyage to Spitzbergen, Captain Lewis wished to 
attack a white bear. Four sailors fired at forty paces distance, 
and wounded the animal. Upon which the bear, infuriated, ran 
towards his assailants with open mouth. As he approached with 
frightful howling, a sailor and the captain, who had not yet fired, 
took aim and wounded his shoulder; before they could re-load 
the bear was close upon them. They made for the shore, the 
animal following, though lame; he was on the point of catching 
them, when two of them jumped into the boat, and the others 
hid themselves behind some blocks of ice, and fired as soon as 
they could. The new wounds only increased his rage. At last 
he came so near that the sailors leaped into the water from a 
perpendicular rock of some height. The bear leaped in after them, 
and he had almost seized one of the men, when his strength 
became exhausted, and he breathed his last. When his body was 
dragged to the coast, it was found that he had received eight balls. 
The cry of the white bear is said to resemble the hoarse 
barking of a dog rather than the low growl which other bears 
make. This quadruped has both intelligence and sagacity. A seal 
was once lying on the ice close to a hole into which it intended to 
retreat if a danger threatened. A bear, discovering it, approached, 
silently and under cover, as near as he could; he then plunged 
into the sea, swam to the hole which was to secure the safety of 
the seal, and making his way through it, he seized his prey. 
The captain of a whaling vessel wished to have the skin of a 
