THE POLAR BEAR. Ill 



Instance of affection Dread of heat. 



back and moaned ; and that not availing to en- 

 tice them away, she returned, and smelling round 

 them, began to lick their wounds. She went off 

 a second time as before ; and, having crawled a 

 few paces, looked again behind her, and for some 

 time stood moaning. But still her cubs not 

 rising to follow her, she returned to them again; 

 and with signs of inexpressible tenderness, went 

 round, pawing them, and moaning. Finding at 

 last, that they were cold an4 lifeless, she raised 

 her head towards the ship, and uttered a growl 

 of despair, which the mariners returned with a 

 volley of musket-balls. She then fell between 

 her cubs, and expired in the act of licking their 

 wounds." 



The males, also, at a certain time of the year, 

 are so fondly attached to their mates, that Mr. 

 Hearne asserts, he has often seen one of them, 

 when a female was killed, come and put his two 

 fore paws over her, and in that position suffer 

 himself to be shot rather than quit the body. 



During the winter these animals retire and bed 

 themselves deep in the snow, or under the fixed 

 ice of some eminence; where they remain in a 

 state of torpidity till the Arctic regions are revi- 

 sited by the beams of the sun. 



Of all animals the Polar bear is one that seems 

 to have the greatest dread of heat. Professor 

 Pallas mentions one that would not stay in its 

 house in the winter; although in Siberia, where 

 the climate is very cold. And one that was kept 



