Arctic Animals 159 
given on seeing an unskinned bear’s head is that it has a large brain-cavity, but on 
cleaning the skull it is seen that the appearance is caused by the huge muscles used 
for moving the jaws. he polar bear is “a bit of a fool” is the conclusion one arrives 
at on examining the head closely, but a terrible fellow to bite, which is quite true. 
The belief that the polar bear hibernates is an erroneous one. JI have shot numbers 
of polar bears, both male i and female, during the 
long Arctic winter. The female will lay up 
in a lai deeply buried in snow for many weeks, both 
before and after bringing forth young, and during 
that time will touch no food. As the time of 
gestation, as a rule, is during the months of dark- 
ness, this period of seclusion has been mistaken by some 
travellers for hibernation by both male and female. The 
law is dumb-bell shaped and about twelve feet from 
end to end, with a narrow breathing-hole from the 
waist of the dumb-bell communicating with the 
outside air. = The cubs, rarely more 
than two in number, weigh 77°? °Y Be pee eee aoe about 16 Ibs. at birth. The 
hair is whiter than in the Taken at the Tiondon Zoo, where it adult, and naturally finer in 
texture. They show the bad Siegen yD manners of thei kind at 
an early age, and are intractable, ill-tempered little creatures, on whom 
kindness has no softening influence. During one winter we had no 
less than three bear-cubs living in the hut at one time with ourselves. 
As time went on their uncouth behaviour increased, and they turned the 
place into a bedlam of noise—so much so that my party could 
get no sleep mght or day, and if any of the men ventured 
across the room one of the little cubs was pretty sure to 
“eo for” him. We fed them on condensed milk from 
an extemporised feeding-bottle, which they took to very 
readily. The polar bear 
is the great provider of sport in the Arctic 
regions, and of supply to the larder. The 
terrible monotony of Photo Ce life there has often 
: 4 . Hagenbeck. fakes Yeo 2 o 
been relieved by the A ANN warms,  GOSememes or Ins 
great straw-coloured 
approaches from lee- 
Once the property of body as he cautiously 
Carl Hagenbeck; now ward the ice-bound 
jin Roumania. 
Photographs by Capt. Jackson. 
WALRUS IN THE WATER. TWO WALRUSES ASLEEP ON FLOATING ICE. 
