AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
221 
away, she returned, and smelling around them, began to 
lick their wounds. She went off a second time, as be- 
fore; and having crawled a few paces looked again behind 
her, and for some time stood moaning. But 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. Find- 
ing at last that they were cold and lifeless, she raised her 
head towards the ship, and growled her resentment at the 
murderers; which they returned with a volley of musket 
balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their 
wounds.” 
The sagacity of the Polar Bear is well known to the 
whale fishers, who often find all their ingenuity insuffi- 
cient to entrap him, as the following instance may serve to 
show. A noose, baited with a piece of “ kreng,” or whale 
carcass, was placed at a proper distance from the ship, 
which soon attracted the attention of a large bear. In 
attempting to secure the bait, the animal by some move- 
ment drew the noose, so as to catch him by one of his 
fore-paws. Apparently 7 unconcerned by this circum- 
stance, and conscious of knowing how to free himself from 
restraint, he quietly loosened the slip-knot with the other 
paw, and leisurely walked off to enjoy his morsel. The 
trap was again baited, and the bear once more approach- 
ed to obtain his favourite food, but, grown wise by expe- 
rience, he carefully avoided the rope, and carried off the 
bait, to the mortification of the captain, who wished to ob- 
tain his skin. The whaler, resolved to baffle the address 
of the bear, re-arranged his noose once more, carefully 
burying the rope at a considerable depth in the snow: but 
his precautions were unavailing; the bear cautiously ex- 
amined the vicinity, scented the ground with attention, 
detected the situation of the rope, dug it up and threw it 
out of his way; then securing his prize, he once more 
triumphantly withdrew to enjoy it.'* 
Captain Scoresby shot a she-bear and took her two cubs 
alive, as they did not offer to leave the body of their 
mother, and he kept them on board of his ship, until they 
were tame enough to be allowed to go about the deck. 
On one occasion a cub, tied by the neck with a long rope, 
was allowed to go out of the ship, when he immediately 
swam to the ice, and as soon as he attained it, made a vio- 
lent effort to break the rope by running at full speed until 
he put the rope as suddenly on the stretch as possible. 
Failing in his first attempt, he went back far enough to 
slacken the cord, and again renewed his race, in order, if 
possible, to break it. Convinced by these experiments, 
* See Scoresby’s Arctic Regions, vol. 1, whence several of these 
anecdotes are sketched. 
that it was a hopeless attempt, he lay down, sullenly 
growling his vexation. Another artifice resorted to by 
this animal was still more singular; passing a chasm or fis- 
sure in the ice, about eighteen inches or two feet wide, 
and three or four feet deep, the slack, (or bight) of his 
rope dropped into it; young Bruin returned, and going 
down head foremost into the chasm, he hung by the edges, 
holding on with one hind-foot on each side of it, and tried 
with both his fore-paws to loosen the rope and slip it off 
his head, as if he was aware that in this position he would 
be assisted by the weight of the portion which had drop- 
ped lower into the cavity. 
The Polar Bear, like the other species of this genus, is 
able to live exclusively on vegetable food, as has been re- 
peatedly proved by experiment on those brought to 
Europe. One which was exhibited in France, ate six 
pounds of bread a-day, and was altogether fed with this 
substance. It appears that the carnivorous habits of this 
animal, are greatly dependent on the circumstances of its 
situation, for being placed where vegetation is exceeding- 
ly scanty, if it even exists at all, and surrounded by seals, 
fish, &c., there can be no choice; notwithstanding, the ani- 
mal is provided by nature with proper organs for the mas- 
tication and digestion of vegetable food. 
The Polar Bear in captivity seems to suffer much from 
heat, which renders his confinement very uncomfortable, 
as is expressed by his restlessness and roaring. This is in 
some degree quieted by repeatedly throwing buckets of 
cold water over his body, which is always grateful and 
refreshing. 
As far north as navigators have yet advanced, Polar 
Bears have been found, but their numbers evidently dimin- 
ish where seals are scarce, while they are very numerous 
where seals are found in greatest abundance. Near the 
east coast of Greenland they have been seen in large 
flocks, at a distance resembling sheep more than beasts of 
prey. On the shores of the Arctic Ocean, Spitzbergen, 
Greenland, and Nova Zembla, from the river Ob in Sibe- 
ria, to themouthsofthe JeneseiandLena, and in the vicinity 
of Hudson’s Bay, they are found in various degrees of 
abundance. 
The Polar Bear is peculiarly distinguished from other 
species of this genus by the length of the body, compared 
with its height, by the length of the neck, the smallness 
of the external ears, and length of the soles of the feet; 
which, according to Cuvier, are one-sixth of the whole 
length of the animal. In the fineness and length of its 
pelage it also differs materially from the other species. 
The forehead and muzzle of the Polar Bear are nearly on 
the same line, or flat; while in the European or brown 
bear, they are separated by a deep depression. In the 
K k k 
