THE POLAR BEAR. 59 



as the animal advances in age. The head is long and flattened ; 

 the outline of its profile is nearly straight 5 the ears and mouth 

 are very small. The claws are short, thick, black, and but 

 slightly curved ; and the soles are almost entirely clothed with 

 long hair, which serves to secure a firm footing on the slippery 

 ice. It has a heavy walk, like that of all plantigrade animals -, 

 but it swims and dives well, and can remain submersed for a 

 considerable time. 



The voice of the specimen at the Jardin des Plantes was never 

 heard, except when the animal was irritated by teazing, and 

 then it uttered an uniformly strong and hoarse sound. 



Its senses of hearing and seeing are feeble ; but its sense of 

 smelling is very acute. Captain Parry says, that in Davis's 

 Straits, a large Polar bear approached the Griper, and that it 

 was probably attracted by the smell of some red herrings which 

 were being fried at the time, as the Greenland sailors are in 

 the habit of thus enticing these animals near their ships. 



It is said, that although it is usually of solitary habits, it will 

 join others of its species, and, in a troop, set out in pursuit of 

 fish. Cartwright saw a Polar bear dive after a salmon, and 

 succeed in capturing it. Besides fish, it preys on walruses, 

 seals, the remains of dead whales, and other marine animals. 



" On one occasion a Polar bear was seen to swim cautiously 

 to a large rough piece of ice, on which two female walruses 

 were lying asleep with their cubs. The bear crept up some 

 hummocks behind them, and with his fore-feet loosened a large 

 block of ice, which, with the help of his nose and paws, he 

 rolled and carried until immediately over the heads of the 

 sleepers, when he let it fall on one of the old animals, which 

 was instantly killed. The other walrus, with its cubs, rolled 

 into the water ; but the younger one of the stricken female 

 remained by its dam 5 on this helpless creature the bear now 

 leaped, and thus completed the destruction of two animals which 

 it would not have ventured to attack openly. The strata- 

 gems practised by it in taking the large seal are not much less 

 to be admired. These creatures are remarkably timid, and for 



