144 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 
eats vegetable substances, as seaweed, grass, and lichens. I 
have several times, on examining the stomach of a bear that 
had been shot, found in it only remains of vegetable substances; 
and the walrus-hunters know this so well that they called' a 
large old Polar bear, which Dr. Theel shot at Port Dickson in 
1875, '' an old Land-king” that was too fat to go a hunting,and 
therefore ate grass on land. He makes use besides of food of 
many different kinds; a bear, for instance, in the winter 1865-66 
consumed for Tobiesen the contents of two barrels of salt fish, 
which he had left behind in a deserted hut. 
The flesh of the bear, if he is not too old or has not recently 
eaten rotten seal-flesh, is very eatable, being intermediate in 
taste between pork and beef. The flesh of the young bear is 
white and resembles veal. The eating of the liver causes 
sudden illness. 
Although, as already mentioned, the Polar bear sometimes 
drifts to land and is killed in the northernmost part of Norway, 
his skin is not enumerated by Othere among the products of 
Finmark. It thus appears to have become known in Europe 
first after the Norwegians’ discovery of Iceland and Greenland, 
and was at first considered an extraordinary rarity. A Norwegian 
of importance, who had emigrated to Iceland, and there suc¬ 
ceeded in getting hold of a female bear with two young, sent 
them in 880 to the King of Norway, and got in return a small 
vessel laden with wood. This animal had not then been seen in 
Norway before. The old sagas of the north are said to relate 
further that the priest Isleif, in order to be nominated bishop of 
Iceland, in the year 1056 presented a white bear to Kejsar 
Henrik. In the year 1064 the King of Denmark gave in 
exchange for a white bear from Greenland a well-equipped, full 
rigged, trading vessel, a considerable sum of money, and a 
valuable gold ring.^ 
Marco Polo also says in his account of the country of the 
’ GrbnJanch hhtorisJce Mindesmarlrr, Kjobeiihavn, 1838, III. p. 384. 
