16 R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 



fire a few shots among tliem, when the Bears sprang furiously 

 from the carcass and made for our boat. One succeeded in getting 

 its paws on to the gunwale ; and it was only by the vigorous 

 application of an axe that we succeeded in relieving ourselves 

 of so unwelcome an addition to our crew. 



On the whole, I do not think that the Polar Bear is a very 

 fierce animal, when not enraged ; and I cannot help thinking 

 that a great deal of the impressions which we have imbibed re- 

 garding its ferocity are more due to old notions of what it ought 

 to he, rather than what it is, and that the tales related by Barentz, 

 Edward Pellham, and other old navigators regarding its blood- 

 thirstiness during the time they wintered in Spitzbergen were a 

 good deal exaggerated. When enraged, oi* emboldened by hunger, 

 I can, however, quite well understand that, like all wild and 

 even domesticated animals, it may be dangerous to man. On the 

 East Coast of Greenland, where they know little of man, they 

 are very bold. The members of the German Expedition, when 

 making out-door observations, had to be continually on their 

 guard against them. I have chased it over the floes of Pond's 

 Bay, and the Bear's only thought seemed to be how best to 

 escape from its pursuers. I should have hesitated a good deal 

 before making so free with the Grizzly Bear of the Californitin 

 wilds ( U7'sus ferox), which is, perhaps, the most ferocious animal 

 on the American continent. Though seemingly so unwieldy, 

 the 7iennok runs with great speed ; and being almost marine in 

 its habits, it swims well. I have chased it with a picked crew 

 of eight whalemen, and yet the Bear has managed to distance 

 us in the race for the ice-fields. It would every now and again, 

 when its two cubs were getting left in the rear, stop and (literally) 

 push them up behind; and on reaching the steep edge of the 

 ice-floe, finding that we were fast reaching them, it lifted each of 

 them up on the ice with its teeth, seizing the loose skin at the 

 back of the neck. Once on the ice, they were safe. 



It is often found swimming at great distances from land {vide 

 the statements in arctic voyages, and the works of Richardson, 

 Parry, &c., passim). The stories of its making ice-houses, and 

 of their gambols therein, as related by Fabricius, as well as of its 

 combats with the Walrus, are still prevalent in Greenland. 



It is curious that the old Eskimo stories about the Polar Bear 

 having no evacuations during the season of hybernation, and 

 being itself the means of preventing them by stopping all the 

 natural passages with moss, grass, or earth (Richardson's " Fauna 

 Bor.-Am." i. 34), prevail also among the North-western American 

 Indians on the other side of the continent, in reference to the 

 Brown Bear {Ursus americcmus), the substance used in stopping 

 the passages varying according to the tribe among whom the 

 myth is prevalent, from a ball of clay to one of pine-resin ! 



I do not think that it hybernates during the whole winter, 

 as usually supposed ; at all events they are often seen during 

 the winter, though these are probably old males. It is probable 

 that the females, when not pregnant, roam all winter like the 

 males. Unlike its congeners, it does not hug, but bites ; and it 



