124 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Phtto i/ C. If. Wilttn &> Co., Ltd.] 



THE ICE-BEAR'S COUCH 



{Aberdeen 



A favourite attitude of the polar bear is to lie stretched on its stomach, "with the hind and fore 

 legs extended flat. The head often lies between the fore paws. Notice the hair on the feet, 'which 

 keeps the animal from slipping when on the ice. 



doned and covered over, 

 and cabins of wrecked 

 ships. One bear which 

 had looted a provision 

 depot was found to have 

 swallowed a quantity of 

 sticking-plaster. The ice- 

 bear has been met swim- 

 ming at a distance of eighty 

 miles from land, and with 

 no ice in sight. This shows 

 how thoroughly aquatic 

 its habits and powers are. 

 Polar bears do not hug 

 their victims, like the 

 brown bear, but bite, and 

 use their immense feet and 

 sharp claws. It has been 

 said that when one catches 

 a seal on the ice it will play 

 with it as a cat does with a mouse. The size of these bears varies very much. Seven or eight 

 feet from the tip of the nose to the tail is the usual length ; yet they have been known to exceed 

 even 1 3 feet in length. This would correspond to an immense difference in bulk and weight. 

 An ice-bear was once found feeding on the body of a white whale, 15 feet in length, and weighing 

 three or four tons. The whale could not have got on to the ice by itself, and it is difficult to 

 imagine that any other creature except the bear could. have dragged it there from the sea, where 

 it was found floating. When hunting seals, polar bears will chase them in the water as an otter 

 does a fish, but with what result is not known. Besides stalking them in the manner described 

 above, they will mark the place at which seals are basking on the rim of an ice-floe, and then dive, 

 and come up just at the spot where the seal would naturally drop into the water. Those shot for 

 the sake of their skins are nearly all killed when swimming in the sea. The hunters mark a bear 

 on an ice-floe, and approach it. The bear always tries to escape by swimming, and is pursued 

 and shot through the head from the boat. When the females have a cub or cubs with them, they 

 will often attack persons or boats which molest them ; otherwise they do not willingly interfere 

 with man, except, as has been said above, when they mistake men for seals or other natural prey. 

 The instances recorded of the affection shown by these animals for their young are some- 

 what pathetic. When the Carcase frigate, which was engaged on a voyage of Arctic discovery, 

 was locked in the ice, a she-bear and two cubs made their way to the ship, attracted by the scent 

 of the blubber of a walrus which the crew had killed a few days before. They ran to the fire, 

 and pulled off some of the walrus-flesh which remained unconsumed. The crew then threw 

 them large lumps of the flesh which were lying on the ice, which the old bear fetched away 

 singly, and laid before her cubs as she brought it, dividing it, and giving each a share, and 

 reserving but a small portion for herself. As she was fetching away the last piece, the sailors 

 shot both the cubs dead, and wounded the dam. Although she could only just crawl to the place 

 where the cubs lay, she carried the lump of flesh which she had last fetched away, and laid it 

 before them ; and when she saw that they refused to eat, laid her paws on them, and tried to 

 raise them up, moaning pitifully. When she found she could not stir them, she went to some 

 distance, and looked back, and then returned, pawing them all over and moaning. Finding at 

 last that they were lifeless, she raised her head towards the ship and uttered a growl, when the 

 f sailors killed her with a volley of musket-balls. 



