100 NEIGHBORS WITH OLA WS AND HOOFS. 



yellowish hue, varying with different individuals. Its 

 home is among the snow and ice of the extreme, North, 

 and it is necessarily carnivorous, as no vegetation grows 

 in the regions it inhabits. It lives on fish and seals, and 

 it discovers a great deal of sagacity in capturing its prey. 

 Observing a seal basking on the rocks near the shore, it 

 dives into the water and swims out so as to cut off the 

 retreat of the seal and obliges him to take to the land. 

 Here escape is impossible, and the bear indulges in an 

 unctuous feast, which it shares with the other members 

 of its family. The following narrative, showing the 

 affection of the white bear for its young, is from the 

 " Journal of a Yoyage for making Discoveries to the 

 North Pole": 



18. " Early in the morning, the man at the mast-head 

 gave notice that three bears were making their way very 

 fast over the ice, and that they were directing their course 

 toward the ship. They had, without question, been in- 

 vited by the scent of the blubber of a sea-horse^ killed a 

 few days before which the men had set on fire, and 

 which \vas burning on the ice at the time of their ap- 

 proach. 



1 9. " They proved to be a she-bear and her two cubs ; 

 but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran 

 eagerly to the fire, and drew out from the flames part of 

 the flesh of the sea-horse that remained unconsumed, and 

 ate it voraciously. The crew from the ship threw great 

 lumps of the flesh of the sea-horse, which they had still 

 left, upon the ice. These the old bear carried away singly, 

 laid every lump before her cubs as she brought it, and, 

 dividing it, gave each a share, reserving but a small por- 

 tion to herself. 



20. " As she was taking away the last piece, the men 

 leveled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both 



