POLAR BEAR. 459 



they happen to find. They are said to be fre- 

 quently seen in Greenland in great droves, allured 

 by the scent of the flesh of Seals, and will some- 

 times surround the habitations of the natives, and 

 attempt to break in; and it is added, that the 

 most successful method of repelling them is by 

 the smell of burnt feathers. They grow extremely 

 fat, a hundred pounds of fat having been taken 

 from a single beast. The flesh is said to be coarse, 

 but the skin is valued for coverings of various 

 kinds, and the Greenlanders often wear it as a 

 clothing. The split tendons are said to form an 

 excellent thread. During the summer they re- 

 side chiefly on the ice-islands, and pass frequently 

 from one to another; being extremely expert 

 swimmers. They have been seen on these ice- 

 islands at the distance of more than eighty miles 

 from land, preying and feeding as they float 

 along. They lodge in dens, formed in the vast 

 masses of ice, which are piled in a stupendous 

 manner, leaving great caverns beneath : here they 

 breed, and bring one or two young at a time, and 

 sometimes, but very rarely, three. The affection 

 between parent and young is so great, that they 

 will sooner die than desert each other. They fol- 

 low their dams a very long time, and grow to a 

 large size before they quit them. 



During winter they retire, and bed themselves 

 deep beneath the snow, or else beneath the fixed 

 ice of some eminence, where they pass in a state 

 of torpidity the long and dismal arctic night, ap- 

 pearing only with the return of the sun. 



