Bears using Missiles. 71 
Innuit were attempting to approach some walrus in winter 
lying on the ice close to the water kept open by the strong 
current in Fox’s Channel. As we were getting near we saw that 
a large white bear was before us. He had reached in the most 
stealthy manner a high ridge of ice immediately above where 
the walrus were lying. He then seized a mass of ice in his paws, 
reared himself on his hind legs, and threw the ice with great 
force on the head of a half-grown walrus, and then sprang down 
upon it.” The instances of animals making use of missiles, 
though rare, assuredly raise them high in the scale of intelli- 
gence. : 
The following sustains Dr. Rae’s high estimate of the intelli- 
gence of bears. Mr. J. M. Hayward, in a letter to Nature, says: 
“The following was narrated to me by Mohl’s brother, on 
whose estate (in Russia) it took place. The carcase of a cow 
was laid out in the woods to attract the wolves, and a spring 
trap was set. Next morning, the forester found there the 
track of a bear instead of a wolf on the snow; the trap was 
thrown to some distance. Evidently the bear had put his paw 
in the trap and had managed to jerk it off. The next night the 
forester hid himself within shot of the carcase to watch for the 
bear. The bear came, but first pulled down a stack of firewood 
cut into seven-foot lengths, selected a piece to his mind, and, 
taking it up in his arms, walked on his hind legs to the carcase. 
He then beat about in the snow all round the carcase with the 
log of wood before he began his meal. The forester put a ball 
in his head, which I almost regret, as such a sensible brute de- 
served to live.” 
