The terrestrial mammals and birds of North-East Greenland. 73 



in his face the bear quickly retired, after which Hendrik ran out 

 and gave the bear his rest Avith a rifle ball. 



^^/5 07. Since May 9*^ 6 bears — among which a female with 

 two small cubs — have passed the ice" between the ship and Ma- 

 roussia. The tracing conditions excellent. 



^Чь 07. At Кар Bismarck an old male bear was shot by Koe- 

 foed and Jensen who saw another bear a little farther out on 

 the ice. 



2/б 07. On the ice not far from Stormkap I observed last night 

 three bears — a female with her two almost full-grown cubs. At 

 my arrival the bears fled from a partly devoured seal (Phoca foe- 

 tida), round w^hich appeared likewise some sea-gulls (Laras glaucus), 

 two ravens and two foxes. Both the birds and the foxes were in- 

 credibly impudent. Thus a sea-gull went on snatching at the out- 

 hanging guts of the seal at the same time as the bears were de- 

 vouring skin and blubber of the welcome prey. Evidenth^ very 

 much against their will the bears left the place before I came 

 within suitable shooting distance of them, trudging slowly across 

 the bay, till they remained standing, partly hidden behind an ice- 

 berg, and kept an eye on me. An attempt of getting a shot at the 

 animals would be hopeless under the conditions. I remained hidden 

 near the seal's carcass for a couple of hours, but the prudent ani- 

 mals did not seem inclined to return to the latter. 



Through closer investigation I found that the bears had killed 

 the seal at its "breathing hole" in the ice. The tracing conditions 

 were so good that the whole situation might be constructed with- 

 out difficulty. Three impressions of the bodies of the bears, one 

 directly behind the other, showed that the animals had been lying 

 in wait for the seal at the lee-side of the breathing hole. The latter 

 was surrounded by a layer of snow 75 cm. high, and in this way 

 it was no easy matter for the seal to swing itself up through the 

 hole. Judging from the size of the impressions, the old bear must 

 have been lying nearest to the hole — at a distance of about two 

 meters — and the cubs behind her as lookers-on. In the moment 

 when the seal with great strength forces the fore part of its body 

 up through the funnel-shaped hole, the mighty fore paw of the 

 bear hits it on the head. On the snow distinct marks were left of 

 the leap and the claws of the bear which had scoured hurriedly 

 across the snowy plane on the opposite side of the breathing hole. 

 The shivered skull of the seal was lying close to the latter. (At my 

 arrival the bears had dragged the remains of their prey fifty meters 

 away from the hole.) 



The impressions in the snow proved that the bears had been 



