170 
VERTEBRATA. 
still her cubs not rising to follow her, she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpressible 
fondness went round first one and then the other, pawing them, and moaning. Finding at last 
that they were cold and hfeless, she raised her head toward the ship, and growled her resent- 
ment at the murderers, which they returned with a volley of musket-balls. She fell between her 
cubs, and died licking their wounds." 
Dr. Kane, in his " Arctic Explorations," furnishes us many interesting sketches of the Arctic 
bear. In one instance, he saw one of these huge beasts sliding down hill on his rump, the hill 
being a huge declivity of ice. Whether the beast was doing this for fun, or as a short cut in the 
progress of his journey, does not appear. The following incidents are interesting alike on 
account of the nature of the story and the manner in which it is told. It will be understood the 
adventurers had met with one of these formidable animals and her cub : jl 
" The bear fled ; but the little one, being unable either to keep ahead of the dogs or to keep 
pace with her, she turned back, and putting her head under its haunches, threw it some distance 
ahead. The cub safe for the moment, she would wheel around and face the dogs, so as to give 
it a chance to run away ; but it always stopped, just as it alighted, till she came up and threw it i 
ahead again ; it seemed to expect her aid, and would not go on without it. Sometimes the i 
mother would run a few yards ahead, as if to coax the young one up to her ; and when the dogs 
came up, she would turn on them and drive them back; then, as they dodged her blows, she 
would rejoin the cub and push it on, sometimes putting her head under it, sometimes catching it 
in her mouth by the nape of the neck. 
" For a time, she managed her retreat with great celerity, leaving the two men far in the rear. 
They had engaged her on the laud ice ; but she led the dogs in shore, up a small stony valley 
which opened into the interior. After she had gone a mile and a half, her pace slackened, 
and the little one being jaded, she soon came to a halt. ! 
" The men were then only half a mile behind ; and, running at full speed, they soon came up 
to where the dogs were holding her at bay. The fight was now a desperate one. The mother 
never went more than two yards ahead, constantly looking at the cub. When the dogs came 
near her, she would sit upon her haunches, and take the little one between her hind-legs, fighting 
the dogs with her paws, and roaring so that she could have been heard a mile off. ' Never,' said 
Morton, ' was an animal more distressed.' She would stretch her neck, and sweep at the nearest 
dog with her shining teeth, whirling her paws like the arms of a windmill. If she missed her 
aim, not daring to pursue one dog lest the others should harm the cub, she would give a great 
roar of baffled rage, and go ou pawing and snapping and facing the ring, grinning at them with 
her mouth stretched wide open. ' 
"When the men came up, the little one was perhaps rested, for it was able to turn around i 
with its dam, no matter how quick she moved, so as to keep always in front of her belly. The ' 
five dogs were all the time frisking about her, actively tormenting her, like so many gad-flies ; 
indeed, they made it difficult to draw a bead on her without killing them. But Hans, lying 
ou his elbow, took a quiet aim, and shot her through the head. She dropped instantly, and 
rolled over dead, without moving a muscle. 
" The dogs sprang toward her at once ; but the cub jumped upon her body, and reared up, for 
the first time growling hoarsely. They seemed quite afraid of the little creature, she fought so 
actively and made so much noise ; and while tearing mouthfuls of hair from the dead mother, 
they would spring aside the moment the cub turned toward them. The men drove the dogs oft' 
for a time, but were obliged to shoot the cub at last, as she woiild not quit the body." 
We cannot forbear one more extract from the adventures of this daring explorer : 
" The journey began again as the feast closed, and we should have accomplished my wishes had 
it not been for the untoward influence of sundry bears. The tracks of these animals were be- 
coming more and more numerous as we rounded one iceberg after another ; and we could see 
the beds they had worn in the snow while watching for seal. These swayed the dogs from their 
course : yet we kept edging onward, and when in sight of the northern coast, about thirty 
miles from the central peak of the ' Three Brothers,' I saw a deep band of stratus lying over the 
horizon in the direction of Kennedy Channel. This water-sky indicated the continued opening 
