ZOOLOGICAL 
716 
HIS STRUGGLES WERE TERRIFIC. 
We quickly decided to take that bear alive, 
and after cutting him off from the ice we lowered 
our launch and started in pursuit. Although 
these bears are able to stay in the water for 
hours, they are not very fast swimmers; and we 
very easily overtook our quarry. When we ran 
close up to him, he turned to fight; and then we 
threw a rope lasso over his head, took a turn on 
a cleat and started to tow him to the ship. 
His struggles were something terrific, and in a 
moment he had thrown the rope off his neck and 
was free. Recoiling our rope, we threw it and 
caught him again, and again he fought his way 
out of the noose to freedom. This was repeat- 
ed many times. He rarely stayed in the rope 
for more than three or four minutes at a time, 
as the noose would slip over his small head very 
easily, when we would be compelled to go back 
and start all over again. 
Finally, however, the rope 
held, and we succeeded in get- 
ting the bear to the ship, when 
our men swung out the large 
crane or derrick, operated by a 
powerful steam winch, to hoist 
him aboard. When we passed 
the rope to the hands on deck 
they were compelled to hold the 
animal very tightly to keep him 
from climbing into the launch. 
Presently it seemed to me that 
the bear was choking, and I 
ordered the rope loosened at 
once. Too late! His eyes 
were glassy, and he was stone 
dead. 
This unfortunate experience 
taught me something, however, 
SOCIETY BULLETIN. 
in the art of catching large bears, and I de- 
cided to use different tactics the next time. 
At the same time, we discovered that the 
cages bought from an animal dealer 
in New York were too small, the 
dealer evidently thinking we intend- 
ed to catch cubs, whereas, in real- 
ity, we were expecting to capture 
bears weighing from 900 to 1100 
pounds. The first mistake we 
made was in getting the rope 
squarely around the neck of the 
animal, so I decided that the next 
bear we roped I would leave the 
noose slack until we had gotten his 
forelegs through it, when we could hoist 
him on board and lower him into the hold 
without any danger of choking him. 
On Thursday, August 4, we sighted a large 
bear, that the Eskimos took to be a female, but 
which proved to be the large male bear now in 
the Zoological Park, swimming among the small 
broken pans. We lowered the launch and 
started after him. We had considerable diffi- 
culty in getting close to him, as he would gain 
on us very rapidly whenever he crossed over 
a pan which we were compelled to go around. 
Finally, however, we succeeded in cutting him 
off by running between him and the pan for 
which he was making. Just then a very laugh- 
able thing happened. Captain Bartlett, who 
was steering the launch, was sitting on one side, 
at the wheel. When the bear saw that he was 
cut off from the pan, he dove, and we thought 
he would come up at the other side of the boat. 
This, however, was not in his mind, and he came 
up directly alongside, and smashed the boat a 
terrible blow just about a foot under Captain 
HE THREW THE ROPE OFF AND WAS FREE. 
