16 



Ursus maritimus L. Polar Bear. 



On the sixth of July 1900 we met with the first Bear, 

 с 200 miles from the nearest main land. We had just got 

 through the spread, much decayed field-ice, and were going 

 through channels among mighty ice-fields. It was an elderly 

 shebear with two young, both females ; she was walking in an 

 ice-field, but did not immediately observe us; she scraped a 

 little hole in the snow, sat down and suckled the young. We 

 set out in pursuit of her in a boat ; not till then she discovered 

 us, as we, along the edge of the ice flake, tried to get up with 

 her. Now she ran away with her young and jumped into the 

 water, climbed on to a flake, and again jumped into the water, 

 but was very soon after got up with. It was strange to see 

 how the two young sat down on her back and rested a little, 

 while she swam through the water (Amdrup has made the same 

 observation during his boat expedition southwards). They were 

 all of them killed. The mother had in the stomach pieces of 

 skin and blubber from a seal, the young only blubber and milk, 

 no pieces of skin. 



Still the polar bear is not common in the floating ice in 

 summer; it stays mostly near land and in the inlets. Amdrup 

 met, on his boat expedition from Cape Dalton southward, with 

 numerous bears along the coast. During the ship expedition 

 we met in Turner Sund with one bear, in Turner with 

 one, in Dunholm with one female, "on the south coast of Jameson 

 Land with one male , in Fleming Inlet with two , a shebear 

 and her young, at the mouth of King Oscar's Fjord with jflve. 



It has by and by become a known thing, that the polar 

 bear in summer in a great measure lives on vegetables. Four 

 of the bears, killed during the ship expedition, had plenty 

 of vegetable substances in their stomachs ; it was mostly 

 Oxyria ; also different other vegetable substances may 

 serve it as food, bleaberries (Vaccinium uliginosum) (Bay), 



