26 GAME ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



time since one of a pair in the Zoological Gardens at Cologne killed 

 his mate after a savage combat which lasted for a long time. 



The young of this species, generally two in number, are brought 

 forth in December while the mother is snugly ensconced in some 

 crevice in the rocks beneath a warm blanket of snow. The female 

 displays the most devoted attachment for her young, and will 

 suffer herself to be killed in their defence. In confinement, how- 

 ever, the mother usually devours her cubs shortly after birth, so 

 that in London at the Zoological Gardens the young are removed 

 immediately after birth and are given to a bitch to rear. 



The White Bear is wholly carnivorous in his diet, and preys 

 upon seals, fish, the carcasses of whales, and sometimes even upon 

 the huge walrus. As might be inferred from his habitat, he is 

 not a tree climber. In the water, however, he is at home, almost 

 as much so as the seal. White Bears have been killed on the 

 ocean forty or fifty miles from land, and that too at a time when 

 there was no floating ice upon which they could rest themselves. 

 The following account of the manner in which these animals 

 capture seals is given by Capt. Lynn : — 



" The Bear, on seeing his intended prey, gets quietly into the 

 water, and swims to leeward of him, from whence, by frequent 

 short dives, he silently makes his approaches, and so arranges his 

 distances that at the last dive he comes to the spot where the seal 

 is lying. If the poor animal attempts to escape by rolling into the 

 water, he falls into the bear's clutches ; if, on the contrary, he lies 

 still, his destroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, 

 and devours him at leisure." During the summer these bears 

 spend much of their time on the ice-floes, swimming from one to 

 another ; they lodge in the large crevices ; and in winter, when it 

 is always night, when the ice-floe is as stable as land, they bed 

 themselves deep in the snow, and remain in a state of torpidity 

 until the welcome sun returns to gladden the scene. 



The great size and strength and the ferocity of the Polar Bear 

 have furnished themes upon which many a writer has dilated at 

 length, and all accounts of Arctic exploration contain narratives 

 bearing on the habits of this species. From a great mass of mate- 

 rial the following anecdote from the pen of Mr. Lamont, is selected. 



" The bear was surprised on the shore, where the soft mud 



