POLAR BEAR. Gj 



body which he was devouring fast by the neck, he 

 carried it away, as yet quite entire. Nevertheless, they 

 then perceived that he began himself to totter ; and 

 the purser and a Scotchman going towards him, they 

 gave him several sabre wounds, and cut him to pieces, 

 without his abandoning his prey."* 



Another story, more amusing than serious, occurs in 

 a manuscript account of Hudson's Bay, written in 1786', 

 by Mr. Andrew Graham, who assisted Pennant so much 

 in his Arctic Zoology. One of the company's servants, 

 who was out procuring hares, having occasion to come 

 to the factory for a few necessaries, on his return to his 

 tent, passing through a thicket of willows, found him- 

 self close to a white bear lying asleep. As he had 

 nothing wherewith to defend himself, he took the bag 

 ojflf his shoulder and held it before his breast, between the 

 bear and him. The animal arose on seeing the man, 

 stretched himself, and leisurely rubbed his nose ; and 

 having satisfied his curiosity by smelling at the bag, 

 which contained a loaf of bread and a flagon of beer, 

 relieved the poor man from his apprehensions, by turn- 

 ing round and walking quietly away. 



During winter, the white bear, being always able to 

 fish and procure animal food, does not hybernate like 

 the other species ; but this must only be understood of 

 the males, since the pregnant females seclude themselves 

 in the usual manner. Hearne, whose observations in 

 general have been found pretty correct, states, that on 

 the setting in of winter, the females burrow in the deep 

 snow drifts, and there remain to bring forth their young; 

 but the males set out to leave the land, swimming to and 

 wandering upon the fields of ice, in search of seals, &c. 



Of the manners of this species under confinement, 

 M. F. Cuvier has given a long account ; but, as we have 

 detailed its native habits at some length, we need not 

 fatigue the reader by describing the animal in its un- 

 natural state. The one that lived in the Paris me- 

 nagerie suffered so extremely from heat, that, for the 



* Church. Coll. ofVoy. i. 83. 

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