Hibernation of Polar Bears. 67 
buffalo—a weight of more than half a ton, probably—along the 
ground, though its own weight is said to reach 800lb. 
The white, or rather cream-coloured, Polar bear, has no such 
reputation for ferocity, though, like all the family, it fights 
courageously when brought to bay, or in defence of its cubs. 
The Eskimo have no hesitation in pursuing these bears single 
handed in their sledges. When they come up with the quarry, 
the dogs are unharnessed and rush to the attack. Surrounded 
and worried by these, an opportunity presents itself to the 
hunter, who plunges his spear under the left shoulder of the 
beast as it turns to seize him. In spite of the skill and deter- 
mination of these men, however, they sometimes fall into the 
clutches of a wounded bear and get severely mauled. Stories 
are told, too, of bears creeping silently over the ice on their 
hair-padded feet, and surprising an Eskimo as he sits watching 
a seal hole by giving him a tap on the shoulder to remind him 
that his hour is come. The hunter then, it is said, has only one 
chance—to roll over and feign death, and take an opportunity, 
while his enemy is unsuspectingly surveying him, of dealing him 
a fatal blow. In the days of my confiding youth I read in some 
book on natural history of an infallible method of escaping 
from a bear. The fugitive had only to lie down and pretend to 
be dead, when Bruin would come up and carefully smell the 
body to ascertain whether it was breathing. So long as one 
could hold one’s breath there was no danger, and the bear, too 
magnanimous to slay the slain, would pass on his way peacefully. 
I have never met with any trustworthy confirmation of this, 
though the stories current among the Eskimo are very closely 
related to it. So deeply did the infallibility of everything I 
read impress me, that I used to train hard in the exercise of 
holding my breath, in preparation for the time when I should 
go bear hunting, and should have lain down quite confidently 
before the most savage grizzly. However, the opportunity has 
never occurred, and somehow my faith in the method has 
departed. , 
If the natives of North America are to be believed, we must 
F2 
