410 
TIIE BEAR. 
harmless, but beneficial; and Dr. Kane says 
that, eaten raw, it forms one of the best re¬ 
medies for the scurvy.” 
“ Oh, shocking !” exclaimed Matilda. “ He 
did not eat it raw, did he ?” 
“Yes: both bear and walrus meat were 
eaten raw, and found much more beneficial 
in that state than when cooked. Dr. Kane 
thought there were few things better than a 
slice of frozen walrus ; and it was certainly 
a fortunate thing in their case that they 
found it so, for their means of cooking were 
scanty in the extreme. There has always 
been an idea that the liver of the bear was 
poisonous. Dr. Kane was at first inclined 
to treat this as a prejudice, and partook of 
it once or twice on his first voyage without 
receiving any harm; but on his last voyage 
he found himself attacked, after eating it, 
with symptoms resembling those from 
poison. But if the bears were beneficial 
to him in one way they were mischievous 
enough in another, by destroying his deposits 
of provisions, even when he thought he had 
secured them against even the possibility 
of such an attack. He gives the following 
account of their performances:— 
