102 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
Tue Powar Bear (Thalarctos maritimus) 
(PLATE Ix) 
From the Alaskan-Canadian boundary on the northwest, 
along the Arctic shores of the Northwest Territories, the 
Hudson Bay and Labrador, and throughout the islands of 
the Canadian Arctic, this magnificent denizen of the polar 
seas, whose very name conjures up a vision of deep-blue Arc- 
tic seas and fringing ice-floes, withstands the rigours of the 
north and the persecution of the hunters of his splendid 
skin. In the solitude of the Arctic this animal, so splen- 
didly endowed by nature for such an environment of ice 
and frigid waters, hunts its food along the edge of the ice- 
pack and drifting floes, where he may secure, by patient 
hunting, the cautious seal. Whatever animal remains are 
cast ashore are acceptable, and only during the short 
Arctic summer is it able to resort to vegetable food such as 
constitutes a large portion of the food of his more southerly 
relatives. 
As arule only the more hardy males face the long Arctic 
winter out-of-doors. The female usually hibernates in 
some convenient cavity, and there, buried under the deep 
snow, she brings forth her cubs, which rely on their mother 
for their sole supply of food during the winter months they 
spend in the little ice cavern, that is formed by the com- 
bined heat of their bodies. With the advent of spring they 
are released from their snow prison, and the fish and wild 
fowl form their food until the melting of the snow uncovers 
the sparse supply of vegetable food, such as herbage, roots, 
and Arctic berries. 
Many years of excessive hunting have materially reduced 
the numbers of the polar bear, especially in the western 
Arctic, and they are in serious need of protection. The 
Hudson’s Bay Company’s returns show that in the decade, 
