XV. 



ALASKAN AND POLAK BEAR. 



"And round about the bleak North Pole 

 Glideth the lean, white bear." 



Nearly forty years ago, when down from 

 the Indian country to sell some skins in 

 San Francisco, I saw a great commotion 

 around a big ship in the bay, and was told 

 that a Polar bear had been discovered 

 floating on an iceberg in the Arctic, and 

 had been taken alive by the ship's crew. 



I went out in a boat, and on boarding 

 the ship, just down from Alaska with a 

 cargo of ice, I saw the most beautiful speci- 

 men of the bear family I ever beheld. A 

 long body and neck, short legs, small head, 

 cream-white and clean as snow, this enor- 

 mous creature stood before us on the deck, 

 as docile as a lamb. This is as near as ever 

 I came to encountering the Polar bear, al- 

 though I have lived in the Arctic and have 



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