54 Bear-Meat and Bear-Oil. [August, is64. 



no sooner had he said it than Ninoo gave one more convulsive leap. 

 He then fell lifeless. 



The number of shots fired is not beyond what is usually found 

 necessary. Hall, recaUing the experiences of his first voyage, says he 

 had sometimes thought that the bear exemplifies the old saying of the 

 cat's nine lives, for ball after ball is often put through the head, and the 

 bear drops down as often seemingly lifeless, yet in a few moments off 

 again he trots. 



Polar No. 1 was found to be immensely loaded with fat, " covered 

 with a complete blanket of it, five inclies thick on the rump ; the en- 

 trails entirely encased with fat." The paunch was empty. This Ebier- 

 bing explained by saying, ''WhenMwoo get fat he no eat any more for 

 two or three months ; " an empty paunch is, therefore, no sign that he 

 is hungry. The skin, the fat, and the meat were saved. The whole of 

 the inwards, except the fat covering, was thrown into the sea The 

 Innuits never eat anything from the inside of the bear. Steaks of 

 juicy, red meat were welcomed by the crew, and Hall says better beef 

 could not be had in the States. These last remarks accord with what 

 Scoresby, in his Account of the Arctic Regions, says, viz, that he once 

 treated his surgeon to a dinner of bear's ham, and he knew not for a 

 month afterward but that it was beefsteak. The liver is hurtful, while 

 the liver and flesh of the seal, on which the bear chiefly feeds, are 

 nourishing and palatable. Sailors who have inadvertently eaten the 

 liver of the bear have sickened ; some have actually died. These ill 

 effects have not, however, been always the experience of Arctic sailors. 



The amount of oil obtained from the two bears was over seventy 

 gallons ; all the blubber was cut up to make it. Usually the Eskimo 

 woiiicii (1(» this part of the work, but Too-koo-li-too had never practiced 



