ARCTIC MARINE ANIMALS. 



65 



him a place among the marine animals of the Arctic zone. He hunts by scent, 

 and is constantly running across and against the wind, which prevails from the 

 * northward, so that the same instinct which directs his search for prey also 

 serves the important purpose of guiding him in the direction of the land and 

 more solid ice. His favorite food is the seal, which he surprises crouching 

 down with his fore paws doubled underneath, and pushing himself noiselessly 

 forward with his hinder legs until within a few yards, when he springs upon 

 his victim, whether in the water or upon the ice. He can swim at the rate of 

 three miles an hour, and can dive to a considerable distance. Though he at- 

 tacks man when hungry, wounded, or provoked, he will not injure him when 

 food more to his liking is at hand. Sir Francis M'Clintock relates an anecdote 

 of a native of ITpernavik who was out one dark winter's day visiting his seal- 

 nets. He found a seal entangled, and whilst kneeling down over it upon the 

 ice to get it clear, he received a slap on the back — from his companion as he 

 supposed ; but a second and heavier blow made him look smartly round. He 

 was horror-stricken to see a peculiarly grim old bear instead of his comrade. 

 Without taking further notice of the man. Bruin tore the seal out of the net, 

 and began his supper. He was not interrupted, nor did the man wait to see 

 the meal finished, fearing, no doubt, that his uninvited and unceremonious guest 

 might keep a corner for him. 



Many instances have been observed of the peculiar sagacity of the Polar 

 bear. Scoresby relates that the captain of a whaler, being anxious to procure 

 a bear without wounding the skin, made trial of the stratagem of laying the 

 noose of a rope in the snow, and placing a piece of kreng, or whale's carcass, 

 within it. A bear, ranging the neighboring ice, was soon enticed to the spot. 

 Approaching the bait, he seized it in his mouth ; but his foot, at the same 

 moment, by a jerk of the rope, being entangled in the noose, he pushed it off 

 with the adjoining paw, and deliberately retired. After having eaten the piece 

 he carried away with him, he returned. The noose, with another piece of 

 kreng, being then replaced, he pushed the rope aside, and again walked tri- 

 umphantly off with the kreng. A third time the noose was laid, and this time 

 the rope was buried in the snow, and the bait laid in a deep hole dug in the 

 centre. But Bruin, after snulRng about the place for a few minutes, scraped 

 the snow away with his paw, threw the rope aside, and escaped unhurt with 

 his prize. 



The she-bear is taught by a wonderful instinct to shelter her young under 

 the snow. Towards the month of December she retreats to the side of a rock, 

 where, by dint of scraping and allowing the snow to fall upon her, she forms a 

 cell in which to reside during the winter. There is no fear that she should be 

 stifled for want of air, for the warmth of her breath always keeps a small pas- 

 sage open, and the snow, instead of forming a thick uniform sheet, is broken 

 by a little hole, round which is collected a mass of glittering hoar-frost, caused 

 by the congelation of the breath. Within this strange nursery she produces 

 her young, and remains with them beneath the snow until the month of March, 

 when she emerges into the open air with her baby bears. As the time passes 

 on, the breath of the family, together with the warmth exhaled from their 



5 



