32 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
walked. quietly away, thereby relieving the man from his very disagreeable 
situation,” 
The Polar Bears feed chiefly on animal substances, and as they swim and diye 
well, they hunt seals and other marine animals with great success. They are 
even said to wage war, though rather unequally, with the Walrus. They feed 
likewise on land animals, birds, and eggs, nor do they disdain to prey on carrion, 
or, in the absence of other food, to seek the shore in quest of berries and roots, 
They scent their prey from a great distance, and are often attracted to the whale 
vessels by the smell of burning ‘reng, or the refuse of the whale blubber. 
Captain Lyons thus describes the mode in which the Polar Bear surprises a seal. 
‘* The Bear, on seeing his intended prey, gets quietly into the water, and swims 
to leeward of him, from whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes his 
approaches, and so arranges his distance, that, at the last dive, he comes to the 
spot where the seal is lying. Ifthe poor animal attempts to escape by rolling 
into the water, he falls into the Bear's clutches; if, on the contrary, he lies still, 
his destroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, and devours him at 
leisure.” The same writer describes the pace of the Polar Bear, at full speed, as 
“a kind of shuffle, as quick as the sharp gallop of a horse.” 
The principal residence of the Polar Bear is on fields of ice, with which he 
frequently drives to a great distance from the land. In this way they are often 
carried from the coast of Greenland to Iceland, where they commit such ravages 
on the flocks, that the inhabitants rise in a body to destroy them. Captain Sabine 
mentions that he saw one about mid-way between the north and south shores of 
Barrow’s Straits, which are forty miles apart, although there was no ice in sight to 
which he could resort to rest himself upon ; and Captain Lyons informs us, that 
the Polar Bears not only swim with rapidity, but are capable of making long 
springs in the water. They are not known to travel far inland. They have been 
found in higher latitudes than any other quadruped, having been seen by Captain 
Parry in his most adventurous boat-voyage beyond 82 degrees of north latitude, 
The limit of their incursions southward on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and of 
Labrador, may be stated to be about the 55th parallel. They are often seen 
about York Factory in the autumn, having most probably drifted from the north- 
ward on the ice during the summer. Pennant, who has collected, from good 
authorities, much information relative to their range, states, that they are frequent 
on all the Asiatic coasts of the Frozen Ocean, from the mouth of the Obi east- 
ward, and abound in Nova Zembla, Cherry Island, Spitzbergen, Greenland, 
Labrador, and the coasts of Baffin’s and Hudson’s Bays. They were seen by 
