328 THE NENNOOE, OR POLAR BEAR. 



of its instructor, it performs feats which are more curious and remarkable than the ordinary 

 run of performances that are achieved by the Learned Bears of our streets. 



In either case, it is always a saddening sight, for, however ingenious may be the instructor, 

 or however docile the pupil, the unnatural performances of the poor animal always seem to be 

 out of place. We have no right to attempt to humanize a Bear or any other animal ; for in so 

 doing we are preventing it from working the task which it was placed in the world to fulfil. 



The Bear — as may be said of every animal — is the result of a divine idea in the mind of 

 the Creator, and it ought to be our business to aid the creature in developing that idea as 

 far as possible, and not to check its development by substituting some other idea of our 

 own, which, with all we can do, must necessarily be a false one. Even the imprisoned 

 Bears which mount a tall pole for the purpose of obtaining cakes and fruits from their 

 visitors, are performing their mission much more truly than the most accomplished Bear 

 that ever traversed the country, and are, in consequence, much more agreeable to the eye 

 of any one who values the animal creation on account of the moral qualities which are 

 implanted in them from their birth, for us to develop to their highest extent, and in which 

 we may read an ever-Living word proceeding from the ever-creating hand of God. 



Moreover, all those who in studying natural history desire to look deeper than the sur- 

 face, and to direct their attention rather to the inward being of the various animals than to 

 their outward forms, will find that every creature in which is the breath of life has a phys- 

 ical, a moral, and sometimes a spiritual analogy with the more expanded organisms of 

 humanity, and owes its position among created beings to that very analogy. 



In every human being are comprised all the mental characteristics that are outwardly 

 embodied in the various members of the animal kingdom, and it is impossible to mark any 

 attribute of the lower animals which does not find a further and a higher development in 

 the human existence in one or other of its manifestations. 



This subject is too wide to receive even a cursory notice in the present article, but will 

 be again taken up on future pages. 



There is generally an aquatic member of each group of animals throughout the vertebrate 

 kingdom, and among the Bears this part is filled by the Nennook, or Polar Bear, some- 

 times called, on account of its beautifully silvery fur, the White Bear. As has already been 

 mentioned, the Bears are good swimmers, and are able to cross channels of considerable 

 width, but we have, in the person of the Nennook, an animal that is especially formed for 

 traversing the waters and for passing its existence among the ice mountains of the northern 

 ions. 



Probably in consequence of the extreme cold which prevails in the high latitudes where 

 this creature is found, its food is almost entirely of an animal nature, and consists of seals and 

 fish of various kinds. In order to capture the fish in their own element, or to make prey 

 of the active and wary seals, it is necessary that the Nennook should be endowed with no 

 ordinary powers of body and sense. Its capabilities of scent are extraordinarily fine, for it 

 will perceive, by the exercise of that sense alone, the little breathing-holes which the seals 

 have made through the ice, even though the icy plain and the breathing-holes are covered with 

 a uniform coating of snow. Even the Esquimaux dog, which is specially trained for this very 

 purpose, is sometimes baffled by the extreme difficulty of discovering so small an aperture 

 under such difficult circumstances. 



So active is this Bear, and so admirable are its powers of aquatic locomotion, that it has 

 been seen to plunge into the water in chase of a salmon, and to return to the surface with the 

 captured fish in its mouth. And when it is engaged in the pursuit of seals, as they are lying- 

 sleeping on a rock or an ice-raft, it is said to employ a very ingenious mode of approach. 

 Marking the position in which its intended prey lies, it quietly slips into the water, and diving 



