INGENIOUS IMPLEMENT. 123 



reads in the accounts of the early navigators of 

 the polar seas, to be the grossest exaggerations, 

 if not purely imaginary. Even at the present 

 day, many ridiculous fables respecting them 

 are current; for instance, before I went to 

 Spitzbergen, I recollect an Englishman, who 

 had passed many summers in Norway and 

 could speak the language thoroughly, telling 

 me gravely the following story. He heard 

 from the people who went to Spitzbergen that 

 the white bear was a most dangerous and 

 ferocious animal, and always charged right at 

 a man whenever he saw him. " Other wild 

 animals," said my informant, "might charge 

 occasionally, but the white bear invariably did 

 so, and the plan universally adopted for killing 

 him was based upon this well-known habit of 

 the animal, and consisted in having a spear 

 made with a cross-piece about two feet from 

 the point, and when the bear, according to his 

 usual practice, charged, the operator presented 

 this ingenious implement towards him; the 

 bear then seized it by the cross, and in his 

 efforts to drag it away from the man he pulled 

 the blade right into his own body, and so killed 

 himself ! ! ! " Upon my venturing to express 

 some slight doubts as to whether bears really 



