THE POLAR-BEAR 279 



tier's voyage to Newfoundland, 1534, in his account of 

 the island of birds, situated off the coast of Newfound- 

 land, is the following: "And albeit the sayd island be 

 fourteen leagues from the mainland, notwithstanding 

 beares come swimming thither to eat the sayd birds, 

 and our men found one of these as great as any cow and 

 as white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into 

 the sea, and upon Whitsunmunday (following our voy- 

 age to the land) we met her by the way swimming 

 toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soon as 

 we saw her we pursued her with our boats and by 

 maine strength tooke her, whose flesh was as good to 

 be eaten as the flesh of a calf two years old." 



The polar-bear is, when full grown, from eight to 

 nine feet in length ; nine feet is said to be large for a 

 polar, but some have been taken which measured more 

 than ten. In addition to the flesh of seals and fish, this 

 bear eats quantities of marine grasses. It sits near the 

 water on the ice and "makes a current toward it with 

 its paws in the water and then reaches for an object 

 floating on it." I have often observed polar-bears thus 

 engaged, as no doubt my readers have, in zoological 

 gardens. Like the grizzly, the polar-bear was consid- 

 ered by the earlier visitors to the Arctic regions as a 

 most ferocious and formidable beast. He has, how- 

 ever, learned much about the repeating-rifle, and his 

 knowledge has, no doubt, become a matter of instinc- 

 tive heredity, so that the present generation of polars 

 is reported not to be so fierce and dangerous as its 

 ancestors were said to be. The change in the disposi- 

 tion of this bear is said to be very noticeable. It is 

 possible, however, that the earlier accounts were some- 



