140 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
men and bears have gone through on such occasions. During our 
expedition in 1864, for instance, a large bear came and closely 
examined the contents of a boat covered with a tent, which we 
had left unwatched for a few hours at the bottom of Stor Fjord. 
He ate up a carefully-cooked reindeer roast, tore the reserve 
clothes, scattered about the ship-biscuit, &c.; and after we had 
returned in the evening, gathered our things together in a heap, 
closed the tent and lain down to sleep, the same bear returned, 
and, while we slept, appropriated all the reindeer beef we had 
cooked to be used, in place of the roast we had lost, during the 
folloAving day’s journey. During one of the English expeditions 
in search of Franklin, there was killed on one occasion, a bear 
in Avhose stomach there was found, among many other articles, 
the stock of sticking-plaster from a neighbouring depot. The 
bear can also SAvallow very large stones, but a layer of frozen 
sand is too much for him. 
The Polar bear swims exceedingly well, but not so fast as that 
he can escape in this Avay, if he be pursued in a boat; if a boat 
and stout roAvers are at hand he is accordingly done for, if, as 
often happens, he in attempting to escape seeks his deliverance 
in the sea. There, he is, as the hunters say, “ as easy to kill as 
a sheep,” but one has to make haste to get hold of the killed 
animal Avith a harpoon or in some other Avay, for it speedily 
sinks, unless it is very fat. 
The walrus-hunting vessels from Tromsoe brought home in 
1868 tAventy, in 1869 fifty-three, in 1870 ninety-eight, in 1871 
seventy-four, and in 1872 thirty-three bears. It maybe inferred 
from this that the Norwegian walrus-hunters kill yearly on an 
average at least a hundred bears. It is remarkable that in this 
large number a pregnant female or one with newly-born young 
is never found.^ The female bear appears to keep herself AA^ell 
^ During the Avintering of 1869-70 on East Greenland, Dr. Pansch once 
saw a female bear with quite small young (Die ziveite deutscTie Nord- 
Volarfahrt, Leipzig, 1873-74. Vol. II. p. 157). 
