TEE FARMER. 
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a display of reasoning powers one would hardly 
expect to find. "When her cub begins to fail in its 
powers of locomotion, the old one has been seen to 
stop and encourage it, sometimes pushing it along 
before her ; and when hard pressed lifting the little 
ones out of the water on to the edge of the ice floe 
as a cat lifts her kittens. Eichardson, Parry, and 
others mention the fact of the white bear being found 
a long distance from land swimming in the open sea- 
Then there are the stories and traditions of the 
whalers, such as that one of the bear in hard times 
sucking at its own paws, to extract sustenance from 
its own system to support itself; as well as others 
to the effect that it builds for itself houses in the ice, 
and of their gambols therein ; as well as encounters 
with the walrus, affording ample matter for whaling 
sailors yarns whenever the subject crops up amongst 
them on sight of a “ Farmer.” 
As for the question of the winter hybernation of the 
bear, there are many conflicting opinions. Those kept 
in confinement do not help in this inquiry, for the 
conditions of its life are entirely altered; but it is 
supposed that the female retires for some period of the 
winter, and the old males only partially hybernate. 
The young of the bear on making its first appearance 
in this world is the smallest infant we know of when 
