288 
POLAR BEAR. 
and activity enough to render it at all times formidable. Although, like 
nil Bears, it appears clumsy, can run with great swiftness either on the 
ground or on the ice, and it can easily ascend the slippery sides of ice- 
bergs by the assistance of its claws, being in the habit of mounting on 
their ridges and pinnacles to look out for food or survey the surrounding 
fields of ice. 
When in confinement, the great strength of this Bear is sometimes mani- 
fested to the terror of the spectators. One that was secured in a cage 
fronted with rods of inch iron, bolted into a horizontal flat plate of the 
same metal, several inches wide, near the bottom, and well lastened at 
top, in the stout oak boarding of which the cage was constructed, one day 
when we were present became enraged by the delaj' of his keeper in 
bringing his food, and seized two of the rods with such a furious grij) that 
one of them bent and instantly came out, when the huge beast nearly 
made his escape, and was only prevented from succeeding by the prompt- 
ness of the attendants, who instantly placed the wooden front, used when 
travelling, on the open part of the broken cage and closed it effectually. 
This Bear, like all others we have seen caged, was very restless, and 
would walk backwards and forwards in his prison-house for hours to- 
gether, always turning his head toward the bars in front, at each end of 
this alternating movement, and occasionally tossing his head up and down 
as he walked to and fro. 
Many anecdotes are related of accidents to the crews of boats detached 
from whaling vessels to kill the White Bear, and by alt accounts it appears 
to be exceedingly dangerous to attack this animal on the ice. One of 
these accounts, with others of a different character, we will repeat here, 
although they have been published by several authors. 
Dr. ScoRESBY tells us, that “ a few years ago, when one of the Davis’s 
Strait whalers was closely beset among the ice at the ‘ South-west,’ or on 
the coast of Labrador, a Bear that had been for sometime seen near the 
ship, at length became so bold as to approach alongside, probably tempted 
by the offal of the provision thrown overboard by the cook. At this time 
the people were all at dinner, no one being required to keep the deck in 
the then immovable condition of the ship. A hardy fellow, who first 
looked out, perceiving the Bear so near, imprudently jumped upon the 
ice, armed only with a handspike, with a view, it is supposed, of gaining 
all the honour of the exploit of securing so fierce a visitor by himself. But 
the bear, regardless of such weapons, and sharpened probably by hunger, 
disarmed his antagonist, and seizing him by the back with his powerful 
jaws, carried him oflf with such celerity, that on his dismayed comrades 
