66 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



HOME OF THE POLAR BEAR. 



bodies, serves to enlarge the cell, so that with their increasing dimensions the 

 accommodation is increased to suit them. As the only use of the snow-burrow 

 is to shelter the young, the male bears do not hibernate like the females, but 

 roam freely about during the winter months. Before retiring under the snow, 

 the bear eats enormously, and, driven by an unfailing instinct, resorts to the 

 most nutritious diet, so that she becomes prodigiously fat, thus laying in an in- 

 ternal store of alimentary matter which enables her not only to support her 

 own life, but to suckle her young during her long seclusion, without taking a 

 morsel of food. By an admirable provision of nature, the young are of won- 

 derfully small dimensions when compared with the parent ; and as their growth, 

 as long as they remain confined in their crystal nursery, is remarkably slow, 

 they consequently need but little food and space. 



The Polar bear is armed with formidable weapons, and a proportionate 

 power to use them. His claws are two inches in length, and his canine teeth, 

 exclusive of the part in the jaw, about an inch and a half. Thus the hoards 

 of provisions which are frequently deposited by Arctic voyagers to provide for 

 some future want, have no greater enemy than the Polar bear. " The final 

 cache," says Kane, " which I relied so much upon, was entirely destroyed. It 

 had been built with extreme care, of rocks which had been assembled by very 

 heavy labor, and adjusted with much aid, often, from capstan-bars as levers. 



