176 NATURAL HISTORY. 



" But if tliere be only one hunter, he does not hesitate. Grasping the lance firmly in his hands, 

 he provokes the animal to pursue him by moving rapidly across its path, and then running as 

 if to escape. But hardly is its long unwieldy body extended for the solicited chase, before, with 

 a rapid jump, the hunter doubles on his track and runs back toward his first position. The Bear 

 is in the act of turning after him again, when the lance is plunged into the left side, below the 

 shoulder. So dexterously has this thrust to be made, that an unpractised hunter has often to leave 

 his spear in the side of his prey and run for his life. But even then, if well aided by the Dogs, a cool 

 skilful man seldom fails to kill his adversary." * 



With regard to the value of the skins, Dr. R. Brown informs us that " The Royal Board 

 of Trade in Greenland give the natives about five rigsdaler (11s. 3d.) for a skin. Occasionally, there 

 are a number killed near Cape Farewell, which have come round on the Spitzbergen ice-stream. Here 

 a curious custom prevails, viz., that whoever sights the Bear first man, woman, or child is entitled 

 to the skin, and the person who has shot it only to the blubber and flesh." 



There are some dreadful tales prevalent as to the ferocity of the Polar Bear; but these, 

 according to the same excellent observer, approach a good deal the nature of " yarns." After having 

 lived for some time in the Arctic regions, and hunted Bears again and again, he considers that 

 " a great deal of the impressions which we have imbibed regarding its ferocity are more due to old 

 notions of what it ought to be rather than what it is, and that the tales related by Barentz, Edward 

 Pelham, and other old navigators, regarding its bloodthirstiness during the time they wintered in 

 Spitzbergen, were a good deal exaggerated. When enraged, or emboldened by hunger, I can, however, 

 quite well understand that, like all wild and even domesticated animals, it may be dangerous to man. 

 On the East Coast of Greenland, where they know little of man, they are very bold. The members of 

 the German Expedition, when making out-door observations, had to be continually on their guard 

 against them. I have chased it over the floes of Pond's Bay, and the Bear's only thought seemed to 

 be how best to escape from its pursuers. . I should have hesitated a good deal before making so free 

 with the Grizzly Bear of the Calif ornian wilds (Ursus ferox), which is, perhaps, the most ferocious 

 animal on the American continent. Though seemingly so unwieldy, the n&nnok runs with great 

 speed, and being almost marine in its habits, it swims well. I have chased it with a picked crew of 

 eight whalemen, and yet the Bear has managed to distance us in the race for the ice-fields. It would 

 every now and again, when its two cubs were getting left in the rear, stop and (literally) push them 

 up behind ; and on reaching the steep edge of the ice-floe, finding that we wer.e fast reaching thm, it 

 lifted each of them upon the ice with its teeth, seizing the loose skin at the back of the neck. Once 

 on the ice, they were safe. 



"Unlike its congeners, it does not hug, but bites ; and it will not eat its prey until it is dead, 

 playing with it like a Cat with a Mouse. I have known several men who, while sitting watching 

 or skinning Seals, have had its rough hand laid on their shoulder. Their only chance then has been 

 to feign being dead, and manage to shoot it while the Bear was sitting at a distance watching its 

 intended victim. Though Eskimo are often seen who have been scarred by it, yet I repeat that, 

 unless attacked or rendered fierce by hunger, it rarely attacks man. During our last trip to 

 Greenland, none of our party saw one ; indeed, they are only killed in the vicinity of Disco Bay, 

 during the winter or spring, when they have either come or drifted south on the ice-floes. Six were 

 killed in the vicinity of Ornenak during the winter of 1866-67." 



The flesh of the Polar Bear is sometimes eaten by the Eskimo, but parts of it are said to be 

 poisonous ; this is especially the case with the liver. Scoresby relates that sailors who have in- 

 cautiously partaken of the latter have been made very ill, and have died from its effects ; and Kane, 

 who wished to try for himself the truth of the statement, was upset by the first taste. The fat of this 

 Bear is used for burning ; it has not the disagreeable smell of train-oil. 



* Quoted by Jesse : " History of the British Dog." 



