160 Animal Life 
ship or the lonely hut in those desolate wastes. His flesh, too, in a land where 
fresh meat is so all-important, is hailed with satisfaction by all but the most 
prejudiced. Bear-meat has been the chief stand-by of more than one expedition, and 
with plenty of it, or of any fresh meat, and proper care being exercised, scurvy— 
that curse of Polar expeditions—can be kept at bay. 
One never knows, from a sporting point of view, how the polar bear will behave 
on being sighted. He may take to his heels at once, panic-stricken at the sight of 
a human being, or on the other hand, probably spurred on by curiosity—a marked 
characteristic of the species—may come rushing down to ascertain what this new lind 
of seal, as man possibly appears to him, may be. 
Dogs, especially those of Arctic breeds, such as Esquimaux, Samoyad, or Ostiak, ave 
of great help in hunting the bear, especially during the darkness of the winter months. 
Should the bear show an inclination to take to flight these dogs, by biting his heels and 
generally annoying him, will cause him to turn about and fight a rear-guard action, 
thus giving the sportsman time to come up and with a rifle-shot put an end to the 
hunt. Bears frequently came down to our hut at Cape Flora, and were added to the pot. 
Sometimes, after a long chase, the bear will dash up the sloping side of a berg 
Photograph by Gane Tackson. GREENLAND HARP-SHAL 
Lying near its hole on an ice-floe, twenty miles from open water. 
or other position of vantage and there stand at bay, as in the photograph on page 158, 
until his human enemy appears and adds to his indignities by making him pose as a 
sitter for his photograph first before giving him the cowp de grace with the rifle. The 
photograph here referred to is one of a number taken by the author of polar bears on 
their native floes—the first ever so taken. 
Next to the polar bear the Walrus probably claims the greatest amount of popular 
interest amongst Arctic animals, though to most his ponderous body and long white 
tusks are unfamiliar except in museums and pictures, for the walrus is exceedingly 
difficult to rear in captivity. 
A full-grown bull walrus weighs about 2,000 lbs.; it has very heavy, strong tusks, 
and outweighs the female, whose tusks are much thinner and very considerably lghter. 
The skin, which in parts of the body, such as along the back, is as much as an inch 
and a half in thickness, is covered with short, sparse, coarse hair, brown in colour. 
The value of the walrus lies in the hide itself, the thick layer of blubber underlying 
the skin, and in a lesser degree in the ivory of the tusks. 
In some parts of the Arctic, such as the islands of Spitzbergen and the neighbour- 
hood, walruses have been found in great numbers—soon reduced by persistent hunting. 
