78 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



experience I learned that the one vulnerable 

 point of a swimming bear is its head. 



Throughout the summer the bear wanders 

 over the ice seeking the bergs on which the 

 seals congregate ; exactly how it passes the 

 winter is unknown even to-day. It has been 

 established beyond question that female bears 

 in the Arctic regions, particularly when they 

 have a new-born cub, hibernate in a retreat 

 which they construct by permitting falling 

 snow to settle upon them until it forms a thick 

 crust about them. These miniature caverns 

 communicate with the outside world by one 

 opening only, which the animal keeps clear for 

 respiratory purposes. 



That celebrated hunter, Tobiesen, has de- 

 scribed one of these cavities into which he 

 accidentally fell, to his own great discomfiture 

 and the alarm of the inhabitants. 



Twice, Jackson, in the course of the winters 

 he passed at Franz Joseph Land, discovered 

 female bears enclosed in similar little snow 

 houses which they could not have left for several 

 weeks, seeing that there was no other exit but 

 a small hole for ventilation purposes. The 

 bears were alone with their cubs. 



Male bears which winter on the ice-fields 

 (it is certain, atjleast, that a great many of them 



