342 A JOURNEY TO THE 



Arctic Zoology ; they never approach near the settlements in 

 Hudson's Bay, and are very destructive to rabbits ; they seldom 

 leave a place which is frequented by rabbits till they" have 

 nearly killed them all. 

 The Polar or The PoLAR or White Bear,^ though common on the 



White Bear. 



sea-coast, is seldom found in its Winter retreats by any of our 

 Northern Indians, except near Churchill River ; nor do I 

 suppose that the Esquimaux see or kill any of them more 

 frequently during that season ; for in the course of many 

 years residence at Churchill River, I scarcely ever saw a 

 Winter skin brought from the Northward by the sloop. 

 Probably the Esquimaux, if they kill any, may [367] reserve 

 the skins for their own use ; for at that season their hair is 

 very long, with a thick bed of wool at the bottom, and they 

 are remarkably clean and white. The Winter is the only 

 season that so oily a skin as the Bear's can possibly be cleaned 

 and dressed by those people, without greasing the hair, which 

 is very unpleasant to them ; for though they eat train-oil, 

 ^c. yet they are as careful as possible to keep their clothes 

 from being greased with it. To dress one of those greasy 

 skins in Winter, as soon as taken from the beast, it is stretched 

 out on a smooth patch of snow, and there staked down, where 

 it soon freezes as hard as a board : while in that state, the 

 women scrape off all the fat, till they come to the very roots of 

 the hair. It is sometimes permitted to remain in that posi- 

 tion for a considerable time ; and when taken from the snow, 

 is hung up in the open air. The more intense the frost, the 

 greater is its drying quality ; and by being wafted about by 

 the wind, with a little scraping, it in time becomes perfectly 

 supple, and both pelt and hair beautifully white. Drying 

 deer, beaver, and otter skins, in this manner render their pelts 

 very white, but not supple ; probably owing to the close 



\} Thalarctos mantwius {VYii'p^is). This species, of circumpolar distribution, 

 keeps closely to the sea-coasts, and reaches the southern extremity of Hudson 

 Bay, probably the most southern point of its present distribution.] 



