The Natural History of the Polar Bear. 273 



wandering about on the ice: she had been eating seal. 

 That they dig holes occasionally, and become drifted over 

 and buried for a time is undoubted, for we came across five 

 such cases. But that they actually hibernate is open to 

 question. A non-pregnant female was found buried on 14th 

 October, probably to shelter herself from a strong gale which 

 was blowing. The hole had just been made. Seven days 

 previously we found an unfinished hole ; the bear which had 

 made it had been shot, and was a male. On 3rd February 

 a hole was discovered, a female bear being inside, with a 

 newly-born cub. The cub was, perhaps, a week old ; lochia 

 was coming away from the mother ; the uterus showed recent 

 birth, and the placenta had evidently been eaten. Two other 

 untenanted holes were found, one apparently being that of a 

 small bear. Three of these were made in snow-drifts, in 

 hollows on the land, and two upon the floe in the fiords. A 

 bear, therefore, does not necessarily choose land upon which 

 to make it. 



I measured these holes. The one of 14th October was 



6 feet long and 3 feet deep ; the roof was 1 foot thick, and 

 there was a ventilating hole at the hinder quarters of 

 the bear lay, There was a heap beside it that had 

 been thrown out by the bear. The roof had evidently 

 been formed by drifting snow. There were claw marks 

 all round the sides of the hole. The bear was shot 

 while breaking through the roof, having been disturbed by 

 dogs. The one of 3rd February was a long hole, being 15 feet 

 10 inches long, and divided by a waist into two compart- 

 ments ; the deeper and larger cavity was evidently the one 

 recently occupied, and was 3 feet deep, 5^ feet wide, and 



7 feet long ; its floor was continued, and slightly rising into 

 the second compartment; the waist was 18 inches high and 

 3 feet wide ; the second compartment widened again to 6 feet, 

 was 2 feet high, and ended with a long spiral communication 

 with the outer air, 6 inches in diameter. The rise in the 

 floor of the second named compartment was probably due to 

 compressed dug out snow from the larger one. This bear 

 was shot while breaking through the roof of the larger 

 compartment, in which she was evidently living, and her cub 



