Polar Bear 109 



remains out, and the fiict that all the bears (between sixty and seventy) 

 killed in the winter months during the Austrian expedition under 

 MM. Weyprecht and Payer, were males, supports this statement ; but, 

 on the other hand, the only bears, two in number, which we killed in 

 midwinter (on iith and 19th December 1888), while wintering on Dane's 

 Island (north coast of Spitzbergen), were both females, accompanied on 

 each occasion by a cub. I think it possible, therefore, that it is only the 

 females which are about to cast their young in the spring that lie dormant 

 during the winter." 



A very similar opinion was given many years previously by Sir John 

 Richardson, who, in his North American Zoology^ wrote as follows : — 



" The polar bear being able to procure its food in the depth of even 

 an Arctic winter, there is not the same necessity for its hibernating that 

 exists in the case of the black bear, which feeds chiefly on vegetable 

 matter ; and it is probable that, although they may all retire occasionally 

 to caverns in the snow, the pregnant females alone seclude themselves for 

 the entire winter." 



If the Eskimo account is to be relied upon, namely, that it is only the 

 females which develop a great store of flat at the approach of autumn, it 

 would seem probable that the opinion expressed in the two foregomg 

 quotations is correct. 



Like most, or all, of their kind, white bears are generally met with 

 either singly or in small family parties of from three to live individuals. 

 When, however, the carcase of a whale or walrus is stranded, especially if 

 it be in a more or less odoriferous condition, all the bears within smelling 

 distance flock together to join in the banquet. 



From the length and beauty of the fur, white bear skins are much in 

 demand, and command a high price in the market ; their value ranging 

 between ten and thirty pounds each, if in good condition and retaining 

 the claws. The best skins are stated to be those from Greenland, where 



