110 MAMMALIA-—BEAR. 
lengthened than that of the brown bear, and the body is longer in proportion 
to its bulk. In the Polar seas it may literally be said to swarm. There, it 
is seen not only on the land and fixed ice, but on floating ice several leagues 
out at sea Inthe latter manner, white bears are sometimes conveyed to 
Iceland, wnere they are so much dreaded by the inhabitants that a crusade 
is immediately commenced against them. At sea, the food of this animal 
is fish, seals, and the carcases of whales; on land, it preys upon deer and 
otaer animals, and will eat various kinds of berries. In winter, it beds 
itself deeply under the snow or eminences of ice, and awaits, in a 
torpid state; the return of the sun. It suffers exceedingly when exposed to 
great heat. ¥ 
Of the ferocity of the Polar bear, Barentz gives a striking proof. In 
Nova Zembla they attacked his sailors, carried them off in their mouths 
with the utmost facility, and devoured them in sight of their comrades. A 
few years ago, some sailors in a boat, fired at and wounded one. In spite 
of his receiving another shot, he swam after the boat, and endeavored 
to climb into it. One of his feet was cut off with a hatchet, but he still 
pursued the aggressors to the ship. Numerous additional wounds did not 
check his fury; mutilated as he was, he ascended the ship’s side, drove the 
sailors into the shrouds, and was following them thither, when a mortal 
shot stretched him dead on the deck. 
But even this formidable animal is not without its good qualities. Itisa 
faithful mate and an affectionate parent. Hearne tells us that, at certain 
seasons of the year, the males are so much attached to their mates, that he 
has often seen one of them, on a female being killed, come and put his 
paws over her, and rather suffer himself to be shot than abandon her. 
“While the Carcase frigate, which went out some years ago to make 
discoveries towards the North Pole, was locked in the ice, early one morn- 
ing the man at the mast-head gave notice that three bears were making 
their way very fast over the frozen ocean, and were directing their course 
towards the ship. They had, no doubt, been invited by the scent of some 
blubber of a walrus that the crew had killed a few days before; which had 
been set on fire, and was burning on the ice at the time of their approach. 
They proved to be a she bear and her two cubs; but the cubs were nearly 
as large as the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, and drew out of the 
flames part of the flesh of the walrus that remained unconsumed, and ate it 
voraciously. The crew from the ship threw upon the ice great lumps of 
the flesh of the sea horse, which they had still remaining. These the old 
bear fetched away singly, laid every lump before her cubs as she brought it, 
and dividing it, gave to each a share, reserving but a small portion to her- 
self. As she was fetching away the last piece, the sailors levelled their 
muskets at the cubs, and shot them both dead; and in her retreat they 
wounded the dam, but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity 
from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate concern ex- 
