The Natural History of the Polar Bear. 271 



The bear already referred to above, which had taken 

 possession of half the skin and the head of a walrus we 

 had killed some days before, had stripped the skin of its 

 blubber, leaving the meat, and was so gorged that his belly 

 reached within six or nine inches of the ground when 

 he stood. He could not possibly eat any more, yet he 

 guarded what remained from the ivory gulls and ourselves 

 with determination. He would make rushes, and hiss at the 

 ivory gulls, driving them off, and would then try to rest 

 upon his belly at full length, or with his hind legs under 

 him, and his fore legs folded together like a cat ; then he 

 would yawn and roll over on his back, and yawn again. He 

 hissed at us if we approached him, and when we made as if 

 to take the other half of the skin, he came and carried it 

 away in his mouth, jumping across 5-foot cracks, and sling- 

 ing it over after him with the greatest ease, as if it were 

 the weight of a wet towel, although it would have taken 

 four or five of us to drag it over the ice. He showed 

 no fear, but only attacked us or the gulls when we threatened 

 to steal his food. Eventually we shot him as he ran 

 threateningly at us, when we approached him and his food. 

 He was a big bear, measuring 8 feet 1^ inch from his nose 

 to the tip of his tail. 



Males and females are never seen in company ; both lead 

 a lonely, wandering life — their home is the ice, and their 

 wanderings must cover a large area. Probably Franz Josef 

 Land bears are as much at home in the Kara as the Barent's 

 Sea, in N"ovaya Zemlya, and Spitzbergen, or Wiche Islands, 

 as in Franz Josef Land. The exception when they are not 

 alone, being a mother with her cub, and in the rutting 

 season. 



If the rutting season occurs at particular times, I am 

 inclined to think it is at least twice a year. One of these 

 periods is probably early in March, when we saw a male and 

 female together; the other at the end of August and be- 

 ginning of September. On the 6th of December a pregnant 

 young female was shot, the two foetus measuring 4^ inches 

 in length, and being between two to three months old. On 

 the 25th of August and 2nd of September she-bears were 



VOL. XIV. ^ 



