i;,i VERTEBRATA. 



>- 1 ill her cnba qoI rising to follow her, she returned to them again, ;in<l with signs of inexpressible 

 fondness went round firsl one and then the other, pawing them, and moaning. Finding at last 

 that the\ were cold and lifeless, Bhe raised her head toward the ship, and growled her resent- 

 ment at the murderers, which they returned with a volley of musket-balls. She fell between her 

 cubs, and died licking their wounds." 



1 >r. Kane, in Ids "Arctic Explorations," furnishes as many interesting sketches of the Arctic 

 bear. In one instance, he saw one of these huge heasts sliding down hill on his rump, the hill 

 being a huge declivity of ice. Whether the beast was doing this for fun, or as a short cut in the 

 progress of his journey, docs not appear. The following incidents are interesting alike on 

 accounl of the nature of the story and the manner in which it is told. It will be understood the 

 adventurers had met with one of these formidable animals and her cub: 



'•'riie l>«ar tied; hut the little one, being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs or to keep 

 pace with her, she turned hack, and putting her head under its haunches, threw it some distance 

 ahead. The cub safe tor the moment, she would wheel around and face the dogs, so as to give 

 it a chance to inn away; hut it always stopped, just as it alighted, till she came up and threw i, 

 ahead again; it seemed t<> expect hi'f aid, and would not go on without it. Sometimes the 

 mother would run a few yards ahead, as if to coax the young one up to her; and when the dog« 

 came up, she would turn on them and drive them back; then, as they dodged her blows, she 

 would rejoin tin' cub and push it on, sometimes putting her head under it, sometimes catching it 

 in her mouth by the nape of the neck. 



•• for a time, she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving the two men far in the rear. 

 They had engaged her on the land ice; hut she led the dogs in shore, up a small stony valley 

 which opened into the interior. After she had gone a mile and a half, her pace slackened, 

 and the little one being jaded, she soon came to a halt. 



••The men were then only half a mile behind; and, running at full speed, they soon came up 

 to where the dogs were holding her at hay. The fight was now a desperate one. The mother 

 never went more than two yards ahead, constantly looking at the cub. When the dogs came 

 near her, she would sit upon her haunches, and take the little one between her hind-legs, fighting 

 the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she could have been beard a mile off. 'Never,' sai<! 

 Morton. ' was an animal more distressed.' She would stretch her neck, and sweep at the nearest 

 do._r with her shining teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill. If she missed her 

 aim, not daring to pursue one dog lest the others should harm the cub, she would give a great 

 roar of baffled rage, and go on pawing and snapping and facing the ring, grinning at them with 

 her mouth stretched w ide open. 



•• When the men came up, the little one was perhaps rested, for it was able to turn around 

 with its dam, no matter how quick she moved, so as to keep always in front of her belly. The 

 five dogs were all the time frisking about her, actively tormenting her, like so many gad-flies; 

 indeed, they made it difficult to draw a head on her without killing them. But Hans, lying 

 on his elbow, took a quiet aim, and shot her through the head. She dropped instantly, and 

 rolled over dead, without moving a muscle. 



••The dogs sprang toward her at once; but the cub jumped upon her body, and reared up, for 

 the first time growling hoarsely.' They seemed quite afraid of the little creatine, she fought BO 

 actively and made so much noise; and while tearing moiithfuls of hair from the dead mother, 

 they would spring aside the moment the cub turned toward them. The men drove the dogs oil 

 tor a time, hut were obliged t<> shoot the cub at last, as she would not quit the body." 



We cannot forbear one more extract from the adventures of this daring explorer: 



"Tin- journey began again as the feast closed, and we should have accomplished my wishes had 

 it not been tor the untoward influence of sundry hears. The tracks of these animals were be 

 coming more aid more numerous as we rounded one iceberg after another; and we could s» 

 the beds they had worn in the snow while watching for seal. These swayed the dogs from their' 

 Course: yet we kept edging onward, and when in sight of the northern coast, about thirty 

 miles fioni the central peak of the 'Three Brothers,' I saw a deep hand of stratus lying over the 

 horizon in the direction of Kennedy Channel. This water-sky indicated the continued opening 



