416 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
ried him off! and, plunging his teeth into his body, began 
drinking his blood in long draughts. Hereupon the Avhole of 
that stout crew, struck with terror, turned their backs and 
fled precipitately to the ship. On arriving there they began 
to look at each other, unable to feel much satisfaction with 
their own prowess. Three then stood forth, undertaking to 
avenge the fate of their countrymen, and to secure for them 
the rites of burial. They advanced, and fired at first from so 
respectful a distance that they all missed. The purser then 
courageously proceeded in front of his companions, and tak- 
ing a close aim, pierced the monster's skull immediately be- 
low the eye. The bear, however, merely lifted his head, and 
advanced upon them, holding still in his mouth the victim 
whom he was devouring ; but seeing him soon stagger, the 
three rushed on with sabre and bayonet, and soon despatched 
him. They collected and bestowed decent sepulture on the 
mangled limbs of their comrades, while the skin of the ani- 
mal, thirteen feet long, became the prize of the sailor who had 
fired the successful shot. 
The history of the whale-fishers records a number of re- 
markable escapes from the bear. A Dutch captain, Jonge 
Kees, in 1668, undertook, with two canoes, to attack one, and 
with a lance gave him so dreadful a wound in the belly that 
his immediate death seemed inevitable. Anxious, therefore, 
not to injure the skin, Kees merely followed the animal close, 
till he should drop down dead. The bear, however, having 
climbed a little rock, made a spring from the distance of twen- 
ty-four feet upon the captain, who, taken completely by sur- 
prise, lost hold of the lance and fell beneath the assailant, 
who, placing both paws on his breast, opened two rows of tre- 
mendous teeth, and paused for a moment, as if to show him 
all the horrors of his situation. At this critical instant a sail- 
or, rushing forward with only a scoop, succeeded in alarmmg 
the monster, who made off, leaving the captaiu without the 
slightest injury. 
In 1788, Captain Cook, of the Archangel, when near the 
coast of Spitzbergen, found himself suddenly between the 
paws of a bear. He instantly called on the surgeon, who ac- 
companied him, to fire, which the latter did with such admi- 
rable promptitude and precision, that he shot the beast through 
the head, and delivered the captain. Mr. Hawkins, of the Ever- 
thorpe, in July, 1818, having pursued and twice struck a largo 
bear, had raised his lance for a third blow, when the animal 
sprang forward, seized him by the thigh, and threw him over 
