110 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
We had expected to have seen very many of 
these animals on the coast of Greenland, as in a 
former voyage, on approaching this situation, we 
saw about a hundred, of which more than twenty 
were killed, and four taken alive; but in this ex¬ 
pectation we were quite disappointed, not more 
than three having yet been seen, and of these 
only one, the bear now captured, having given us 
a chance of attacking it, the other two prudently 
keeping on the middle of a large field of ice, where 
we had little encouragement to pursue them. 
When the bear is found in the water, crossing 
from one sheet of ice to another, it may generally 
be attacked with advantage; but, when on the 
shore, or more especially when it is upon a large 
sheet of ice, covered with snow,—on which the bear 
supporting itself upon the surface, until its ex¬ 
pended paws, can travel with twice the speed of a 
man, who, perhaps, sinks to the knees at every 
step,—it can seldom be assailed with either safety 
or success. Most of the fatal accidents that have 
occurred with bears, have been the result of ren¬ 
counters on the ice, or injudicious attacks made 
at such disadvantage. 
A few years ago, when one of the Davis’ Strait’s 
whalers was closely beset among the ice at the 
“ South-west,” or on the coast of Labrador, a bear 
that had for some time been seen near the ship, 
