1868.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 34.5 



boundless ; it roared hideously, tossing the snow in the air, and 

 trotted off in a most indignant state of mind ! 



During the Sealing-season, both in Greenland and in the Spitz- 

 bergeu sea^, the Bear is a constant attendant on the sealer for the 

 sake of the carcasses, in the pursuit of which it is sometimes " more 

 free than welcome." I have often also seen it feeding on Whales of 

 different species, which are found floating dead. In 1861 I saw 

 upwards of twenty all busily devouring the huge inflated carcass of 

 a Balcena mysticetus in Pond's Bay, on the western shores of Davis's 

 Strait. We were foolish enough to fire a few shots among them, 

 when the Bears sprang furiously from the carcass and made for our 

 boat. One succeeded in getting its paws on to the gunwale ; and it 

 was only by the vigorous application of an axe that we succeeded in 

 relieving ourselves of so unwelcome an addition to our crew. 



On the whole, I do not think that the Polar Bear is a very fierce 

 animal, when not enraged ; and I cannot help thinking that a great 

 deal of the impressions which we have imbibed regarding its fero- 

 city are more due to old notions of what it ought to be, rather than 

 what it is, and that the tales related by Barentz, Edward Pelham, 

 and other old navigators regarding its bloodthirstiness during the 

 time they wintered in Spitzbergen were a good deal exaggerated. 

 When enraged, or emboldened by hunger, I can, however, quite well 

 understand that, like all wild, and even domesticated animals, it 

 may be dangerous to man. I have chased it over the floes of Pond's 

 Bay ; and the Bear's only thought seemed to be how best to escape 

 from its pursuers. I should have hesitated a good deal before 

 making so free with the grizzly bear of the Californian wilds ( Ursus 

 ferox), which is, perhaps, the most ferocious animal on the Ameri- 

 can continent. Though seemingly so unwieldy, the nennok runs 

 with great speed ; and being almost marine in its habits, it swims well. 

 I have chased it with a picked crew of eight whalemen, and yet the 

 Bear has managed to distance us in the race for the ice-fields. 

 It would every now and again, when its two cubs were getting left in 

 the rear, stop and (literally) push them up behind; and on reaching 

 the steep edge of the ice-floe, finding that we were fast reaching 

 them, it lifted each of them up on the ice with its teeth, seizing the 

 loose skin at the back of the neck. Once on the ice, they were 

 safe. 



It is often found swimming at great distances from land {vide the 

 statements in 'Arctic Voyages,' and the works of Richardson, Parry, 

 Slc, imssim). The stories of its making ice-houses, and of their 

 gambols therein, as related by Fabricius, as well as of its combats 

 with the Walrus, are still prevalent in Greenland. 



It is curious that the old Eskimo stories about the Polar Bear 

 having no evacuations during the season of hybernation, and being 

 itself the means of preventing them by stopping all the natural 

 passages with moss, grass, or earth (Richardson's ' Fauna Bor.-Am.' 

 i. 34), prevail also among the North-western American Indians on 

 the other side of the continent, in reference to the Brown Bear 

 {Ursus americanus), the substance used in stopping the passages 



