256 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



exclusively, but is common to them all. Interfered 

 with and endangered by no other creature, heedless 

 of the severest cold and braving heavy storms, the 

 fierceness of which is almost beyond our power of 

 conception, he roams about through continent and 

 oceans, over the icy covering of the water or through 

 the waves, and the very snow itself may become his 

 covering and his shelter. He is plentiful on the 

 eastern American coast, around Baffin's Bay and 

 Hudson Bay, in Greenland, Labrador and some 

 islands, and is found as well on the land as on drift 

 ice. In Asia, Nova Zembla is his headquarters; but 

 he is also seen in New Siberia and even on the con- 

 tinent, though only when he drifts there on ice-floes. 

 In this way he sometimes lands in Lapland and also 

 in Iceland; and Polar Bears have frequently been 

 seen drifting on ice-floes in water that was otherwise 

 free from ice, at great distances from the shore. 

 Sometimes they roam about by the dozen or in even 

 more numerous troops. Scoresby says that he once 

 met about one hundred Polar Bears together on 

 the coast of Greenland, of which twenty were near 

 enough to be killed. The uninhabited island of 

 St. Matthews, in Behring Sea, seems to be a real 

 Polar Bear country, for it is full of them; hundreds 

 of them keep house there, unmolested and secluded 

 from the world. They also abound north of the 

 Behring Strait and sometimes gather in considerable 

 numbers around some food. Pechuel-Loesche says: 

 "We saw an unusually numerous troop of Polar Bears 

 on an ice field, for which we thought there must be 

 some special reason. It soon became evident to 

 us. On the edge of the field lay the swollen car- 

 cass of a whale which had been washed ashore, and 

 the Bears had collected for a repast. It was an 

 interesting sight to see the participants of this feast, 

 some of which had soiled their white fur in a de- 

 plorable way in the difficult carving of the mountain 

 of flesh. They seemed very much displeased at our 

 arrival and quite disposed to dispute the right to the 

 prey with those in the approaching boat. But when 

 the largest fellow broke down with a shot in his 

 neck, and another was severely wounded, they made 

 their escape with surprising quickness. Like a pack 

 of angry Wolves they then surrounded us at a safe 

 distance and waited for our departure with all kinds 

 of lumbering, threatening gestures." 

 Physical Traits The movements of the Polar Bear, 

 of Polar on the whole, may be termed clumsy, 

 Bears. b u t his powers of endurance are re- 



markable. He exhibits them to the full in swim- 

 ming, .as he is a masterful adept in this exercise. 

 Scoresby estimates the speed with which a Polar 

 Bear moves in the water, uniformly and without 

 apparent fatigue for hours at a time, at two and a 

 half to three miles an hour. The large amount of 

 fat stands him in very good stead, counterpoising 

 the weight of his body with that of the water. He 

 is therefore enabled to swim across vast expanses of 

 water for days at a time and is often met in the 

 open ocean far from the shore. According to 

 Pechuel-Loesche's observations, he always enters 

 the water hind quarters first, unless he is hard 

 pressed, and he allows himself to glide into the 

 water in a ludicrous, cautious, nearly anxious way. 

 He dives with as much ease as he swims on the sur- 

 face. He has been observed to bring Salmon out of 

 the water, and this is certainly an admirable illustra- 

 tion of his diving powers. On the ground, also, he 

 is by no means as helpless and unwieldy as he looks. 

 His usual pace is slow and deliberate, but when he 



falls into his seemingly clumsy gallop or trot, he 

 proceeds at a surprising pace, even on uneven ice or 

 ground, and he knows how to pick out the most 

 convenient path with great circumspection. His 

 organs of sense are exceedingly acute, especially 

 those of sight and smell. Scoresby says that in 

 traversing vast ice-fields, he mounts on ice-blocks 

 and looks out for prey. He scents a dead Whale or 

 a piece of bacon thrown into the fire at remarkable 

 distances. 



Food and Forag- The food of the Polar Bear con- 

 ing Habits of sists of nearly all the animals 

 Polar Bears. found in the sea or on the unfer- 

 tile coasts of his native country. His formidable 

 strength (which considerably surpasses that of the 

 other ursine Beasts of Prey) and his agility in the 

 water greatly facilitate his task of providing food 

 for himself. Seals of various kinds are his favorite 

 game, and he is sufficiently cunning and agile to 

 reach these sagacious and quick creatures. When 

 he sees a Seal lying on the shore afar off, he noise- 

 lessly enters the water, swims to the Seal against the 

 wind, approaching it with the greatest caution and 

 then suddenly emerges from the water near the ani- 

 mal, and, as a rule, overpowers it. In those ice- 

 bound regions the Seals are wont to lie near holes 

 and crevices in the ice, using them as means of com- 

 munication with the water. The Polar Bear, swim- 

 ming under the surface, finds these apertures with 

 unfailing certainty and so the fear-inspiring head of 

 the most terrible enemy of the helpless Seals sud- 

 denly makes its appearance, so to speak, in their 

 own home, blocking the only road by which it is 

 possible for them to escape. The Polar Bear 

 catches fish by diving and swimming after them, 

 or driving them into crevices between the ice and 

 catching them there. He attacks land animals only 

 when deprived of other prey; still Reindeer, Arctic 

 Foxes and birds are in no way secure from him. 

 Osborne saw a Polar Bear roll away stone-blocks, to 

 provide her Cubs with Lemmings, and Brown, as 

 well as Kukenthal, noticed that this Bear devours a 

 great many eggs of Eider-Ducks. He is wont to 

 regularly visit even those brooding-places of sea- 

 birds which are difficult of access, and levy a tribute 

 on the surplus of eggs and nestlings, occasionally 

 displaying great climbing abilities. He feeds on 

 carrion as well as on fresh meat, and is said not even 

 to disdain the carcass of another Polar Bear. In 

 those regions which are frequented by Seal-hunters 

 and Whalers, the carcasses of Seals and Whales de- 

 prived of skin and fat constitute a convenient and 

 plentiful article of his diet. But he is by no means 

 an exclusive animal feeder, and, wherever he can 

 procure it, he eats vegetable food, especially berries, 

 grass and moss, a fact which is well known to those 

 who have often met Polar Bears. With some old 

 fellows, vegetable food seems to be the predominant 

 if not their only food in summer, in favorable locali- 

 ties, the contents of the stomach of animals which 

 have been killed giving unmistakable proofs to this 

 effect. 



Only Female It is highly probable that most 

 Polar Bears Pegu- Polar Bears do not hibernate. It 

 larly Hibernate. j s an established fact that one 

 may see and hunt them all through the winter. 

 They live on the sea-coast in that season, usually on 

 the brink of the ice. The female Bears retreat for 

 the winter, however, and the Cubs make their ap- 

 pearance during the coldest months. The female 

 Bear prepares a den under rocks or projecting ice- 



