THE POLAR BEAR. 417 
its head into the water. Fortunately it used this advantage 
only to effect its own escape. Captain Scoresby mentions a 
boat's crew which attacked a bear in the Spitzbergen sea ; 
but the animal having succeeded in climbing the sides of the 
boat, all the sailors threw themselves for safety into the wa- 
ter, where they hung by the gunwale. The victor entered 
triumphantly and took possession of the barge, where it sat 
quietly till it was shot by another party. The same writer 
mentions the ingenious contrivance of a sailor, who being 
pursued by one of these creatures, threw down successively 
his hat, jacket, handkerchief, and every other article in his 
possession, when the brute pausing at each, gave the sailor 
always a certain advantage, and enabled him finally to regain 
the vessel. 
Though the voracity of the bear is such that he has been 
known to feed on his own species, yet maternal tenderness is 
as conspicuous in the female as in other inhabitants of the 
frozen regions. There is no exertion she will not make for 
the supply of her progeny. A she bear with her two cubs, 
being pursued by some sailors across a field of ice, and find- 
ing that neither by example nor by a peculiar voice and ac- 
tion she could urge them to the requisite speed, applied her 
paws and pitched them alternately forward. The little crea- 
tures themselves, as she came up, threw themselves before 
her to receive the impulse, and thus both she and they effected 
their escape. 
Bears are by no means devoid of intelligence. Their 
schemes for entrapping seals, and other animals on which 
they feed, often display considerable ingenuity. The manner 
in which the polar bear surprises his victim is thus described 
by Captain Lyon : — On seeing his intended prey, he gets qui- 
etly into the water and swims to a leeward position, from 
whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes his ap- 
proaches, and so arranges his distance that, at the last dive, 
he comes to the spot where the seal is lying. If the poor ani- 
mal attempts to escape by rolling into the water, he falls into 
the paws of the bear ; if, on the contrary, he lies still, his de- 
stroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, and de- 
vours him at leisure. Some sailors, endeavoring to catch a 
bear, placed the noose of a rope under the snow, baited with a 
piece of whale's flesh. The bear, however, contrived three 
successive times to push the noose aside, and to carry off" the 
bait unhurt. Captain Scoresby had half-tamed two cubs, which 
used even to walk the deck ; but they showed themselves al- 
