TAe mke Bear. 187 



•she did by sitting upon her hams and pulling them towards her 

 with her fore-paws, the cubs rushed in and seized their prey, tossing 

 them up in the air in their wantonness. After repeating this ope- 

 ration until the young fiy must have made a very good meal, I 

 was glad to witness the bear's mode of suckling her young, a sight, 

 I should think, rarely seen. Seated on her haunches, with the 

 backbone arched, so as to bricg the breasts (which were situated 

 between the shoulders) as low as possible, the youngsters sucked 

 away in a standing attitude. Anxious to secure this family party, 

 we proceeded to burn all sorts of strong-smelling articles ; and at 

 last she brought her babes down, though very warily, and when 

 more than 100 yards off turned away, evidently suspicious. 

 Following her I contrived, at about 150 yards, to pass a ball 

 (Minie) through her body, abaft the shoulder. The cubs at once 

 made oiF, though I should think they had not long been born, 

 being about the size of an Irish retriever. Joined by a couple of 

 the men (Hall and Wicketts) who soon outstripped me, we even- 

 tually, after a long chase, came up with her ; the brute, seeing she 

 could not escape, had apparently made up her mind to wait for 

 us behind a range of hummocks. When close to her, I learnt that 

 they had one shot each left in their guns ; and as the men longed 

 to go in at her, we walked up, the brute most artfully hiding her 

 body so as to get us within reach for her rush. The wonderful 

 similarity of colour between the fur of the bear and the snow, fa- 

 cilitated her manoeuvre, and we were within thirty yards of her 

 when she rose. It was a ticklish moment, for the brute was 

 venomous from desperation. The men behaved very coolly, how- 

 ever, merely saying to one another, " Steady ! " Hall fired, but only 

 grazed her ; she still came on, when Geo. Wicketts, with my 

 Minie (which I thought he was fully entitled to fire after so suc- 

 cessfully bringing the brute to bay), struck her smartly in the fore 

 shoulder. With a snap of the teeth, which it was satisfactory to 

 know was not on ourselves, she turned round, and staggering 

 along, fell into her lair again ; and we returned to the boat to send 

 after our dinner the small sledge for the blubber. 



The she-bear was miserably lean, nothing in her stomach, and 

 her skin in poor condition. Whilst they were skinning her, the 

 poorlittle whelps ran up to be suckled ; the men tried to catch them ; 

 failing in that, knocked their brains out; their little stomachs 

 were perfectly distended with the unfortunate lemmings, which 

 they had swallowed entire. 



