THE LARGE BEARS. 



205 



The tail is always very short, the body and 

 the limbs short and sturdy, the paws enor- 

 mous and provided with very long claws. 

 The muzzle is usually elongated. The fur 

 of these bears is always in request as a 

 material for rugs and similar articles for 

 which a fine fur is not required. The flesh 

 is palatable, and that of the paws is even 

 considered a dainty. 



The only exclusively carnivorous species 

 among these bears is the Polar Bear ( (Jrsus 

 maritimus), Plate XII., which is at the same 

 time the largest of all carnivores. Old males 

 attain a length of from 8 to S^^ feet, and 

 a weight of 650 to 900 lbs. The polar bear 

 has a rather long but thick and strong body, 

 a long round neck not well marked off from 

 the head, small ears, and a pretty long pointed 

 black muzzle. The eyebrows are pretty 

 well marked, but eyelashes are wanting. 

 The legs are short, very powerful, and fleshy; 

 the paws excessively broad, armed with short 

 curved claws ; the sole of the foot almost 

 completely covered with hair, so that only a 

 few small naked callous patches are to be 

 seen. The tail is very short, and scarcely 

 projects beyond the long dense fur. which is 

 composed of fine, almost woolly hair, and is 

 considerably longer on the under side and 

 on the borders of the limbs than on other 

 parts. This beautiful fur, which in the young 

 animal is pure white, assumes a yellowish 

 colour as the bear grows older, and, in contrast 

 to that of other animals inhabiting the far 

 north, it does not change with the seasons. 



The cause of this permanence of the white 

 colour is easy to understand. Other polar 

 animals which inhabit the land usually adapt 

 their colour in summer to that of the ground, 

 and become white only when the snow has, 

 as it were, covered their native land with a 

 shroud. The polar bear, on the other hand, 

 inhabits only the realrn of ice on the shores 

 of the Arctic Sea, and in summer never 

 ventures far into the land. The ice-girdle 

 which surrounds the north pole is, in fact, its 



true home. It advances and retires with this 

 girdle which man has in vain attempted to 

 break through, and if it sometimes penetrates 

 into less inhospitable regions it is because it 

 has allowed itself to be carried away by an 

 ice-floe. 



Like the tiger and lion in tropical countries, 

 the polar bear is the absolute tyrant of creation 

 in the whole circumference of the north pole. 

 An expert swimmer and diver, and endowed 

 with gigantic strength, he rules both by force 

 and cunning. Seals are his favourite prey, 

 but he manages also to surprise fish in the 

 water, and the reindeer and the Arctic fox 

 on land, and when driven by hunger he does 

 not despise the fresh carcass of a whale, the 

 stores of sailors, or even carrion. He carries 

 on his hunt just as well during the endless 

 night of winter as during the continuous 

 summer of those inhospitable climes. The 

 female alone sleeps during the winter, digging 

 a hole for herself in the snow when she is 

 about to bring forth her young. The scent 

 of the polar bear is very keen, and so also 

 is the sight; these are the two senses by 

 which he is guided in his expeditions. 



In his chase after seals, which hide under 

 the ice and pierce holes for themselves by 

 which to breathe at the surface, the polar 

 bear behaves with the utmost caution and 

 cunning. For hours together he remains 

 sentinel at the edge of one of these holes, 

 and if he does not succeed in killing the .seal 

 with a single blow of his powerful paw at the 

 instant when the latter puts its head out of 

 the water, then he tries to catch it by diving 

 into the water at some little distance and 

 swimming towards the hole under the ice. 



The journals of whalers and Arctic ex- 

 plorers are filled with narratives of encounters 

 with polar bears, which have often had a 

 very disastrous result. We may sum up 

 these narratives by saying that the polar 

 bear when his hunger is appeased very often 

 shuns man, though he does not at all fear 

 him ; that when urged by hunger or impelled 



