566 THE POLAR BEAR. 



nished with a thick fleece, which permits the Arctic bear to walk on 

 the ice as on a carpet, and the toes are connected by a membrane 

 which renders them eminently fit for natatory purposes. 



The Arctic bear seldom visits the land ; his favourite sojourn is 

 the floating ice-field, and his diet the corpses of whales and seals, or 

 even living Phocce, which he fearlessly attacks at the impulse of 

 hunger. "On seeing his intended prey," says Captain Lyon, "he 

 gets quietly into the water, and swims until to leeward of him, from 

 whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes his approaches, 

 and so arranges his distances that at the last dive he comes to the 

 spot where the seal is lying. If the poor animal attempts to escape 

 by rolling into the water, he falls into the bear's clutches ; if, on the 

 contrary, he lies still, his destroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him 

 on the ice, and devours him at leisure." 



In cases of urgency the bear does not scruple to make a prey of 

 man, and he is assuredly a formidable antagonist. His dimensions 

 are enormous ; he is endowed with prodigious strength. Some 

 individuals have been met with who measured nine to ten feet in 

 length. Their average size is about six feet in length, and about 

 three in height, to the top of the shoulder. Spite of their ferocity, 

 which with them, as with nearly all the Carnivora, is a natural 

 consequence of their appetite, the white bears are sociable in their 

 habits : they frequently wander about in small troops, and those of a 

 family invariably "flock together." The male, the mother, and their 

 young are united by the ties of an affection which is capable of the 

 most intrepid devotion. The female especially watches over her cubs 

 with the most anxious solicitude, and defends them to the last 

 extremity. Of this philoprogenitiveness a voyager relates what seems 

 to me a truly pathetic example : 



A vessel belonging to a small squadron commanded by Captain 

 Philippe was caught in the Polar ice. One morning, the look-out 

 man signalled the approach of three bears, which were advancing 

 rapidly towards the vessel, attracted by the odour of some seal's flesh 

 roasted on the previous evening. The three consisted of a she bear and 



