VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
139 
steadiness, discharged his piece, and providentially 
shot the bear through the head. The Captain by 
this prompt assistance was preserved from being 
torn in pieces. Three years since Captain Hawkins, 
of the Everthope of Hull, nearly lost his life in 
attacking a bear. The animal defended himself 
with wonderful fury, and succeeded in getting into 
the boat ; then seized Mr. Hawkins by the thigh, 
dragged him overboard, and swam away with him 
to some distance, before he let him go : the animal 
no doubt would have destroyed him, had he not 
been pursued by the boat. 
Many similar instances were related to me, during 
my voyage, by persons who had witnessed the 
astonishing strength and ferocity of the polar bear : 
it may almost be classed among amphibious animals, 
not only as being an excellent swimmer but an 
expert diver. During the summer months, allured 
by the scent of the carcasses of whales, seals, &c., 
these bears make excursions on the ice, on which 
they have been found more than eighty miles from 
land : they have also been seen going through the 
sea, from one piece of ice to another six miles dis- 
tant. During the winter they return to land, and 
bury themselves deep beneath the snow, or in 
caverns formed in the ice ; here, they pass the long 
and dreary arctic winter, and do not again appear 
until the return of spring. 
The wind being west, we spent the 
whole day in beating to windward, but 
without making the land, though we often imagined 
