THE POLAR BEAR. 



(Ursus maritimus.) 



The Polar Bear is the only aquatic 

 member of the family being often called 

 Sea Bear, as the scientific name (Ursus 

 maritimus) signifies. It is practically 

 confined to the arctic zone, although vari- 

 ous unwilling visitants have come as far 

 south as Iceland and Newfoundland on 

 the floating cakes of ice. In size the 

 Polar Bear ranks next to the grizzly, 

 with a doubt, perhaps, in his favor. He 

 has the longest neck of any bear and finds 

 it very useful in catching seals and fish 

 under water. The coat is a silvery or 

 creamy white, very long and thick, as 

 might be expected in an animal which 

 swims about in the Arctic Ocean and 

 rests upon cakes of ice. The soles of 

 the feet are very long and are covered 

 with thick fur, which gives it a large un- 

 slippery surface, and enables it to climb 

 over ice with facility. 



The food of the Polar Bear consists 

 principally of fish and seals, but the wal- 

 rus often falls a prey to his strength and 

 cunning, and when starved this Bear is 

 known to eat marine grass in large quan- 

 tities. Carcasses stranded on the beach, 

 dead whales and marine animals afford 

 him an opportunity to gorge himself to 

 the utmost and make enough fat to keep 

 out the chill of arctic waters. So fat 

 do these great bears become that the 

 pregnant female is able to bury herself 

 in the snows of winter and hibernate, at 

 the same time suckling her cubs until 

 spring. The males do not hibernate, but 

 may be seen all winter. 



In hunting seals the Polar Bear enters 

 the water at some distance from where 

 his prey is basking on the ice and swims 

 with great rapidity toward it, keeping 

 well under water and raising the tip of 

 his nose to the surface at intervals for 

 breath. At last it rises beneath and in 

 front of the seal and strikes it where it 

 lies, or if it escapes into the water, cap- 



tures it with ease, for he is a very rapid 

 and expert diver. One has been known 

 to dive from a block of ice and capture 

 a passing salmon as deftly as a king- 

 fisher catches a minnow. 



In Greenland the Polar Bear is known 

 to swim from island to island along the 

 shore, eating the eggs and young of the 

 innumerable birds which nest there. 



Jacques Cartier, the French navigator, 

 in the narrative of his voyage to New- 

 foundland in 1534 gives a wonderful ac- 

 count of the Polar Bear's fondness for 

 birds and eggs and the efforts which he 

 will make to procure them. An "Island 

 of Birds" was discovered off the coast of 

 Newfoundland, "and albeit the sayd isl- 

 and be fourteen leagues from the maine- 

 land, notwithstanding beares come swim- 

 ming thither to eat of the sayd birds, and 

 our men found one there as great as any 

 cow, and as white as any swan, who in 

 their presence leapt into the sea, and upon 

 Whitsun Munday (following our voyage 

 to the land) we met her by the way, 

 swimming toward land as swiftly as 

 we could saile. So soon as we saw her 

 we pursued her with our boats, and by 

 maine strength tooke her, whose flesh 

 was as good to be eaten as the flesh of 

 a calf of two yeares old." Captain Sabine 

 reports having seen a Polar Bear swim- 

 ming strongly forty miles from land and 

 with no ice in sight upon which to rest, 

 so the statement of Cartier is perhaps 

 true. Very few cows weigh fifteen hun- 

 dred pounds, but this is the recorded 

 weight of Polar Bears, "as great as any 

 cow," killed by whaling crews in the arc- 

 tic seas. 



In hunting the Polar Bear the Eskimos 

 usually pursue them with dogs and 

 having surrounded them, kill them 

 with spears and harpoons, while they 

 fight the dogs. In the water the Polar 

 Bear is generally able to escape by swim- 



143 



