CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 100 



Bay and of Labrador, may be stated at about tbe fifty-fifth parallel. Sir John Franklin learned 

 from the Esquimaux to the westward of Mackenzie River, that they occasionally, though rarely 

 visited that coast. Captain Beechey did not meet with any in his voyage to Icy Cape. 



As the Polar bear resides principally on the fields of ice, he is frequently drifted far from the 

 land. In this way, they are often carried from the coast of Greenland to Iceland, where they 

 commit such ravages on the flocks that the inhabitants rise in a body to destrov them. 



The pairing time of this species is in May, and such is their attachment to each other that if 

 one of them is killed, the other will suffer itself to be destroyed rather than leave it. The males 

 do nut hibernate, but the females do. The Esquimaux account of this process is thus reported by 

 Captain Lyon : 



" At the commencement of winter, the she-bears are very fat, and always solitary. When a 

 heavy fall of snow sets in, the animal seeks some hollow place in which she can lie down, and 

 then remains quiet while the snow covers her. Sometimes she will wait until a quantity of 

 snow has fallen, and then digs herself a cave : at all events, it seems necessary that she should 

 be covered by and lie among snow. She now goes to sleep, and does not wake until the spring 

 sun is pretty high, when she brings forth her two cubs. The cave, by this time, has become 

 much larger, from the effect of the animal's warmth and breath, so that the cubs have room enough 

 to move, and they acquire considerable strength by continually sucking. The dam at length 

 becomes so thin and weak, that it is with great difficulty she extricates herself when the sun is 

 powerful enough to throw a strong glare through the snow which roofs the den. The Esquimaux 

 affirm, that during this long confinement the bear has no evacuations, and is herself the means of 

 preventing them by stopping all the natural passages with moss, grass, or earth. The natives 

 find and kill the bears during their confinement by means of dogs, which scent them through the 

 snow, and begin scratching and howling very eagerly. As it would be unsafe to make a large 

 opening, a long trench is cut, of sufficient width to enable a man to look down, and see where 

 the bear's head lies ; he then selects a mortal part, into which he thrusts his spear. The old 

 one being killed, the hole is broken open, and the young cubs may be taken out by hand, as, 

 having tasted no blood, and never having been at liberty, they are then very harmless and quiet. 

 Females which are not pregnant roam about through the winter in the same manner as the 

 males." 



Of the attachment of these northern she-bears to their young, we have many interesting ac- 

 counts. The following is furnished by Scoresby, in his narrative of a " Voyage to Greenland :" 



" Early in the morning, the man at the mast-head gave notice that three bears were making 

 their way very fast over the ice, and directing their course toward the ship. They had probably 

 been invited by the blubber of a sea-horse, which the men had set on fire, and which was burning 

 on the ice at the time of their approach. They proved to be a she-bear and her two cubs ; but 

 the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out from the 

 flames part of the flesh of the sea-horse, which remained unconsumed, and ate it voraciously. 

 The crew from the ship threw great pieces of the flesh, which they had still left, upon the ice, 

 which the old bear carried away singly, laid every piece before her cubs, and dividing them, gave 

 each a share, reserving but a small portion for herself. As she was carrying away the last piece, 

 they leveled their muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead : and in her retreat, they 

 wounded the dam, but not mortally. 



" It would have drawn tears of pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affec- 

 tionate concern manifested by this poor beast, in the last moments of her expiring young. Though 

 she was sorely wounded, and could but just crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the 

 lump of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done the others before, tore it in pieces, and laid 

 it down before them ; and when she saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first- upon 

 , one, and then upon the other, and endeavored to raise them up. All this while it was piteous to 

 hear her moan. When she found she could not stir them, she went off, and when at some 

 distance, looked back and moaned; and that not availing to entice them away, she returned, and 

 smelling around 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, 



Vol. I. — 22 



