724 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii. 



fight for life was the ciihninating- point of a career which surely 

 entitled him to hold the position of the unquestioned championship of 

 the white hears of Hudson Bay. The sailor in the crow's-nest was 

 the first to perceive the bear at less than a mile-s distance. He 

 appeared to l)e engaged in a fierce combat with some large animal, 

 which turned out to be the case. When we came up to him he only 

 had had time to partake of a few mouthfuls of the warm- flesh of an 

 enormous seal {Erignat/ms harhatus) which had been killed by him 

 after a terri])le struggle, evidences of this being plainly visible. He 

 looked as if he was very angry indeed at our unseasonable interrup- 

 tion of his well-earned dinner, and at the same time determined to 

 stand by his hard-won prize. At first Mr. Hackland thought we 

 might l)e able to secure him alive, ])y noosing him with a stout rope 

 wirde in the water, but soon gave up the idea as too dangerous, and 

 we then, some six or seven men with guns, fired repeatedly at the bear 

 while on the ice and swinuuing in the sea, at ver}^ close quarters; but 

 although many of the ludlets went wide of the mark, the shooters 

 being mostly youngsters of little experience, we afterwards ascertained 

 that it had taken a numl)er of penetrating ones to oblige him to crouch 

 down and appear to die. After most of our party had landed on the 

 same large ]>lock of ice. in order to take possession of their prey, one of 

 them, with gun still loaded, noticed in time a rather sudden move- 

 ment of the bear, which might have resulted disastrously had he not 

 been promptly finished b}^ a ball through his head. He had been 

 mortally wounded. l)ut he no doubt feigned death in order to avenge 

 himself, and would probably have succeeded had he not been killed 

 outright as stated. We towed his carcass to the ship, and it was at 

 once hoisted on board and well skinned by expert Greenland whale- 

 fishery uKMi among the crew. He was very fat and heavy. Very soon 

 after our return, a severe gale sprung up, which enabled us to leave 

 the ice fields for good. 



Except for li><)2 and 11>03, when 170 and 96 skins, respectively, were 

 sold in London, I have no idea of the company's annual sales of this 

 species. All the skins are obtained from natives of the arctic coast, 

 Hudson Bay, Ungava, and Labrador. When the North Pole is dis- 

 covered, as I expect it will be some day, 1 believe the white bear will 

 be one of the very few mammals found there. I think every arctic 

 exploring and Franklin search expedition refers to the presence of this 

 animal in the polar seas of Greenland and the Dominion. The Investi- 

 gator secured four large specimens in Prince of Wales Strait, and Doctor 

 Armstrong calls Baring Island ''the land of the Polar Bear." Sir 

 Leopold McClintock observed several individuals when drifting w^ith 

 the Fox in the pack ice in 1858, at least 110 geographical miles from 

 the nearest land. On the other hand. Doctor Armstrong thought 

 the meeting of an example over one mile inland on Baring Island 



