The Bears 



123 



The manoeuvres of an ice-bear in the water are marvellous to watch. Though so bulky a 

 beast, it swims, dives, rolls over and over, catches seals or fish, or plays both on and under 

 the water with an ease and evident enjoyment which show that it is in its favourite element. 

 One favourite game of the ice-bear is to lie on its back in the water, and then to catch hold 

 of its hind toes with its fore feet, when it resembles a half-rolled hedgehog of gigantic size. 

 It then rolls over and over in the water like a revolving cask. Its footsteps are absolutely 

 noiseless, as the claws are shorter than in the land-bear's, and more muffled in fur. This 

 noiseless power of approach is very necessary when it has to catch such wary creatures as 

 basking seals. A very large proportion of the food formerly eaten by ice-bears in summer was 

 probably putrid, as they were always supplied with a quantity of the refuse carcases of whales 

 and seals left by the whaling-ships. This may account for the bad results to the sailors who 

 ate the bears' flesh. Now the whaling industry is so little pursued that the bears have to catch 

 their dinners for themselves, and eat fresh food. 



Photo by the New York Zoological Society. 



HALF-GROWN POLAR BEARS. 



When young polar bears are brought to England or New York on board ship, they arrive with coats almost as yellow as a sponge. It takes a 



week's bathing to restore the pure white colour. 



The Arctic explorer Nordenskiold saw much of the ice-bears on his voyages, and left us 

 what is perhaps the best description of their attempts to stalk men, mistaking them for Bother 

 animals "When the polar bear observes a man," he writes in his "Voyage of the Vega, 

 commonly approaches him as a possible prey, with supple movements and a hundred zigzag 

 bends, in order to conceal the direction he means to take, and to prevent the man feeling 

 frightened. During his approach he often climbs up on to blocks of ice or raises himseli 

 his hind legs, in order to get a more extensive view. If he thinks he has to ^do With , a seal 

 he creeps or trails himself forward on the ice, and is then said to conceal with his fore paws 

 the only part of his body that contrasts with the white colour of the snow-las large b ack 

 nose. If the man keeps quite still, the bear comes in this way so near that it can be shot at 

 the distance of two gun-lengths, or killed with a lance, which the hunters consider safer 



When a vessel lies at anchor, a polar bear sometimes swims out to it, to inspect U 

 visiting ship; it has also a special fancy for breaking open and searching stores of provisions, 



