CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIYORA. 
167 
The White Bear, Polar Bear, or Ice Bear, U. Arctos, or U. maritimiis, belongs to both 
continents. It is an inhabitant of the dreary regions which surround the North Pole with eternal 
frost, and of those coasts which are rarely free from ice ; hence it is almost entirely carnivorous 
in a state of nature. Animals of the land and of the sea, birds and their eggs, the dead and the 
living, are its food. An admirable swimmer and diver, and of great strength, he often captures 
the seal, and is said to attack the walrus itself. Cartwriglit saw a Polar bear dive after a 
salmon, and with success, for he killed his fish. Captain Lyon gives the following account of its 
hunting the seal : 
" The bear, on seeing his intended prey, gets quietly into the water, and swims until to leeward 
of him, 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. If the 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 author informs us that this bear not only swims with rapidity, but is capable 
of making long springs in the water. Sabine states that he saw one about midway between the 
north and south shores of Barrow's Straits, which are forty miles apart, though there was no ice 
in sight to which he could resort for rest. 
The Polar bear seems to be, in a great measure, the scavenger of the Arctic seas. The 
floating carcasses of whales and other marine animals form a considerable part of his food, and 
the smell of the burning kreng often brings him to the whale-ships. In the absence of other 
food, however, he does not disdain to seek the shore in quest of berries and roots. That he can 
live on vegetable food alone, has been proved in the feeding of specimens in the menageries 
of both London and Paris. The sea, however, is his great storehouse. Of course, he never 
attacks the full-grown whale, because the weapons with which he is furnished are not capable 
of inflicting any vital injury upon it, while a blow from the whale's tail, even on the water, 
would flatten him like a pancake. He would attack it at a disadvantage, too ; for although he 
can swim for many miles, he is, like other quadrupedal animals, powerful only when he has a 
firm support. He does, however, often attempt, and sometimes succeeds, in capturing the young 
of the whale, while they are so small that he can drag them on the ice. But this is a perilous 
meal for him ; as the whales he is able to land on the ice are sucking whales, and the mother is 
generally very watchful of them. She can either carry the young one away far faster than 
the bear can follow, or she can fight boldly in its defense; so that it becomes food for the 
bear only by stratagem. The walrus is much more an ice and rock animal than the whale ; 
but still the walrus is never so far from the water that it cannot easily regain that element : 
it has perfect command of itself there, and is furnished with tusks so powerful, that although 
the bear sometimes ventures to measure his strength with it, he seldom gains the mastery. 
The young of the walrus is, however, often caught by him ; but still the seal is his staple food, 
and it is very abundant. The ice upon the Polar seas is not so smooth as that which forms upon 
fresh water in lower latitudes, because, when it is first formed, the water is generally in motion, 
and there is not unfrequently snow, so that there is a scum of trash or icy fragments, before the 
water consolidates into a continuous field of ice. This gives it a granulated sm-face, Avhich is 
afterward powdered over with sno^w, which falls, not in flakes, but in smaU particles, when the 
cold is very great. This surface, when once it is formed, remains undecayed during the sunless 
months; but Avhen the sun begins to exert its influence, the surface alternately thaws and 
freezes, at which time it becomes so slippery that it is difiicult footing. To the Polar bear, 
however, it is a safe path, and that animal never slides or stumbles, be the smoothness of the 
surface what it may. It also moves faster iipon firm ground than might be supposed from its 
appearance. Captain Lyon describes its pace when at full speed, as " a kind of shufiie, as quick 
as the sharp gallop of a horse." 
This species is of a more lengthened form than that of other bears ; the head is t ery much 
elongated and flattened, the ears and mouth are comparatively small, the neck is very long and 
thick, and the sole of the foot very large. The fiir is silvery white, tinged with yellow, close and 
