III.] 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
141 
concealed during the time she is pregnant: perhaps in some 
ice-hole in the interior of the country. 
Whether the Polar bear hibernates during winter is not 
quite settled ; various facts, however, point in this direction. 
For instance, he disappears almost completely from wintering 
stations during the dark time, and holes have sometimes 
been met with in which bears were concealed. Thus it once 
happened to Tobiesen that he went down with one foot into 
such a hole, to the no small dismay not only of the experienced 
walrus-hunter, but also of the bear. 
It is also stated that the bear during the dark time goes to 
the edge of the ice to seek his food. I cannot say positively 
whether this is the case or not; but the fact points in an 
opposite direction, that while only a single bear was seen in the 
course of the winter in the open water in the neighbourhood of 
our winter station at Mussel Bay in 1872-73, Palander and I 
almost daily saw bears on the hard frozen sea north of North 
East Land. Tracks of bears were visible there in all directions 
on the ice, and along with them light, sinuous traces of the fox. 
There were, on the other hand, no seal holes to be found, and it 
was accordingly difficult to understand wherefore the bears had 
chosen just this desolate stretch of ice as their haunt. The 
bears that were killed were besides uncommonly lean, the fat 
which they yielded being scarcely available as fuel for the 
sledge-party’s cooking apparatus. 
During their extended excursions after prey the male and the 
female, the latter generally attended by one or two large young 
ones, keep each other company. Larger numbers are seldom 
seen together, unless at places where a good many carcases of 
walruses, seals, or white fish are lying. 
In former times the sight of a bear created great dismay in 
Polar travellers, but now the walrus-hunters do not hesitate a 
moment to attack, lance in hand, a large number of bears. 
They h ave sometimes in this way killed as many as twelve 
