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VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
purser shot him in the head close by the eye, which 
did not cause him to quit his prey ; but he continued 
holding the body by the neck, and devouring it. 
After several other attacks being made, he was 
killed. The two half-devoured bodies were interred 
in the Isle of Slates, and the skin of the bear was 
carried to Amsterdam.” 
Other instances, which have occurred not many 
years since, exemplify the strength and ferocity of 
the polar bear : a whale ship was moored to a piece 
of ice in Davis’s Straits, and the crew were all in 
the ship with the exception of one man who had 
strayed some distance on the ice ; a bear approached 
him unobserved, seized him by the thigh, and carried 
him away before he could be rescued. It is also 
related, that as a ship was lying by the side of the 
ice, a bear came on board, and compelled the crew 
who were on the deck, to get upon the rigging to 
preserve themselves. Instances have also occurred, 
in which bears have not only upset the boats from 
which they were attacked, but have even got on 
board of them and compelled the crews to jump 
overboard, and leave them in possession. In the 
year 1783, Captain Cook of the Archangel, of Lynn, 
being on the coast of Spitzbergen, landed, accom- 
panied by his surgeon and mate ; while traversing 
the shore, the Captain was unexpectedly attacked 
by a bear, which seized him in an instant between 
its paws: at this awful juncture when a moment’s 
pause must have been fatal to him, he called to his 
surgeon to fire ; who, with admirable resolution and 
