Polar bear

“ I had an adventure, about this time, which, like that of Starr's, shows that the Polar bear is not so ferocious as is generally supposed; indeed, they have never been known to attack man except when hotly pursued and driven to close quarters. Strolling one day along the shore, I was observing with much interest the effect of the recent spring tides upon the ice-foot, when, rounding a point of land, I suddenly found myself confronted in the faint moonlight by an enormous bear. ”

“ In the pursuit of its prey the polar bear displays great craft and ingenuity. When it spies a seal sleeping by a hole in the ice, or on the edge of an ice-floe, if it succeeds in approaching undetected, it glides swiftly and silently into the water, swims a certain distance under the surface, and then rises to observe the situation of its victim. ”

“ LIVING amid eternal ice and snow, the polar bear, which is equalled in bodily size only by some of the huge brown bears of Alaska and Kamchatka, evidently owes its white, or in some instances pale cream-coloured, coat to its surroundings; this white livery, like that of the polar hare, being worn throughout the year. The species is always alluded to simply as the polar bear, although its full title should be the north polar bear; the Antarctic, so far as we know at present, having no land mammals. ”

“ The Polar Bear is a very distinct species, easily recognized by its long, flat head, as well as by the white color and smoothness of its fur. It is an inhabitant 40of the frozen shores of the northern hemispheres, and semi-aquatic in its habits, swimming and diving with the utmost ease and facility, for the purpose of capturing Seals, young Whales and Fish, upon which it principally feeds; nevertheless, even this animal is not altogether carnivorous, but feeds greedily on vegetable substances whenever they can be procured. ”

“ The Polar Bear.—About all of the northern coast-line of America, including the shore of Bering Sea and Baffin Bay, lives the well-known polar bear, which is circumpolar in its distribution. The wide range of this the most northern of the bear tribe is due not only to its strength and ability to make long journeys over rough ice-floes and the wide distribution of the animals it feeds upon, principally the hair-seal, but is aided by the fact that it takes to the water readily and is a good swimmer. It has also been known to make long journeys on floating ice. ”

“ The polar bears form a beautiful picture in their light-built cage under a knoll covered with noble forest trees that dip their roots in the shady waters of the lake. A moss-grown staircase leads up to the pits which contain Himalayan black bears and a Russian brown bear. They take life easily, many reaching the age of fourteen to twenty years. ”

“ When the moon fell away from the sky and the sun came to make the icebergs glitter with the gorgeous tintings of the rainbow, two of the polar bears arrived at the king’s cavern to ask his advice about the hunting season. But when they saw his great body covered with feathers instead of hair they began to laugh, and one said:
“Our mighty king has become a bird! Who ever before heard of a feathered polar bear?” ”

“ In the animal world the polar bear is admittedly the monarch of the north. He is the bear of bears, being described by all Arctic travellers as possessing enormous strength and great voracity. Of the score of polars whose more or less intimate acquaintance I have had occasion to make, I have seen at least two whose tracks in the snow measured fifteen by eighteen inches, whose length measured over nine feet, and whose slain carcases tipped the steelyard at from fifteen to sixteen hundred pounds. ”

“ The habitat of the bear is the sea ice and the sea, and not the land. The polar bear is constantly wandering about the floes and pack. It is a solitary animal usually. If there are two or three together, they will be a mother with one or two cubs. The bear does not hibernate, as is commonly supposed, but walks around in a desultory manner, examining and sniffing at everything. ”

“ As the rays of the rising sun, however, began to open the horizon, the adventurous youth was discovered, with astonishment, on the ice, at a considerable distance, anxiously pursuing a huge polar bear. ”

“ The polar bears wander from their native shores: they seem to enjoy travel, and when they sail south on pans of ice they are looking for that toothsome morsel, the seal.
If they cannot get seals, these bears devour the eggs of sea-birds on the islands.
When they swim after ducks, they hide under water, all but the nose: and since that nose is [263] black, and therefore a telltale, they have been seen to bury it in the snow when creeping toward a seal-herd.
The polar bear stands a poor chance against a pack of lively and determined dogs. ”

“ Even the polar bear, living amidst perpetual snow and ice on the shores of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and Greenland, has not, on the whole, a bad life of it, for he is master of the situation, and conquers and devours even the tusked walrus. ”

“ Purely carnivorous in its diet, the Polar Bear subsists chiefly on the Seals it contrives to trap by watching their breathing holes patiently for hours, or it may be for days together. The fur is of a dirty-white hue, inclining towards a yellowish-brown tint in the young. When the Seals are scarce, these Bears will welcome the carcase of a Whale which has floated beyond the recall of the whaler. ”

“ That a carnivore requiring so much food as the polar bear can maintain itself on the frozen polar sea is one of the marvels of adaptation to environment. The activity of these bears through the long black night of the far north is proved by records of Arctic explorers, whose caches have been destroyed and ships visited by them during that season. ”

“ It is not an uncommon thing for White Bears to drift out to sea on floating icebergs, when they become reduced to the most frightful distress from hunger. Fatally confined to their icy raft, and utterly devoid of all means of subsistence, they ultimately attack and devour one another.
The White or Polar Bear often attains a length of nine feet. Its huge limbs and powerful claws are developed in fitting proportion to the massive body; and the soles of its feet are clad with hair, enabling it to tread with safety on the slippery ice floes, where it finds a home. ”

“ The polar bear is a most interesting animal, because he shows us the bear tribe becoming adapted to a watery life. His body is much longer and more flexible than that of most bears, giving him the power to twist and turn in the water, as he swims297 with strong broad feet; and his long neck, narrow head, and small ears, are all fitted for a watery fishing life, while he fights entirely with his teeth and does not hug his prey. ”

“ In hunting seals the Polar Bear enters the water at some distance from where his prey is basking on the ice and swims with great rapidity toward it, keeping well under water and raising the tip of his nose to the surface at intervals for breath. ”

“ In the water the Polar Bear is generally able to escape by swimming 144 and diving and often it happens that by his strength and quickness he overturns boats and mangles the occupants before they can be rescued. The skin and fat of the Polar Bear are more valued by the natives of the north than his flesh, which is both fibrous and strong in flavor. ”

“ As the Polar bear is frequently found above a hundred miles from the nearest land, upon loose ice steadily drifting into the sea, it seems but fair to assign65 him a place among the marine animals of the Arctic zone. He hunts by scent, and is constantly running across and against the wind, which prevails from the northward, so that the same instinct which directs his search for prey also serves the important purpose of guiding him in the direction of the land and more solid ice. ”

“ Notwithstanding ice and snow, and the darkness of a nine months' winter, the Arctic regions are tenanted by several mammalia. Some of these are constant residents, the rest are migratory visitors. Of the former division, one of the most conspicuous, as it is certainly the most formidable, is the polar bear,—a creature between eight and nine feet in length, which, shuffling along the snow at a very quick [Pg 62] pace, and being an excellent swimmer besides, cannot fail to inspire dread. ”

“ They are white on purpose, so that they may not be seen easily among all the snow and ice in which they live. The head of the Polar bear is very long and flat, the mouth and ears are small in comparison with other bears, the neck is long and thick, and the sole of the foot very large. Perhaps you will wonder how the bear manages to walk on the ice, as nobody is very likely to give him skates or snow-boots. ”

“ The polar bear, unlike his brown cousins, fishes and hunts all the winter through, and it is only the mothers which take refuge in caves hollowed out of the snow, where their little ones are born in early spring, and nestle down by her side in their icy home. And when the cubs can run, both father and mother care for them with true devotion, defending them against all attacks, and pushing them before them when pursued, even going so far as to take them in their teeth and swim away with them when they cannot otherwise save them. ”

“ No other polar bear of ours ever manifested such an aversion for water. The other polar bears who have occupied that same den loved that pool beyond compare, and used to play in its waters for hours at a time. Evidently the chase of Silver King through green arctic water and over ice floes, mile after mile, his final lassoing, and the drag behind a motor boat to the ship were, to old Silver King, a terrible tragedy. Now he regards all deep water as a trap to catch bears, but, strange to relate, the winter's snow and ice seem to renew his interest in his swimming pool. ”

“ If any quadruped has ever reached the pole, it is the polar bear; and it is quite probable that his range extends to this remarkable point on the earth’s surface. Most certainly it may, if we suppose that there is open water around the pole—a supposition that, by analogical reasoning, may be proved to be correct. The daring Parry found white bears at 82 degrees; and there is no reason why they should not traverse the intervening zone of 500 odd miles, almost as easily as the fowls of the air or the fish of the sea. No doubt there are polar bears around the pole ”

“ To be sure, he has strong, thick claws, but they would not be of much use—they would only make him slip on the hard ice—but the sole of the foot is covered nearly all over with thick, woolly hair, so the bear walks as safely as old ladies do when they wrap list round their boots.
The Polar bear likes to eat fish, though he will eat roots and berries when he can get no better, and he is a very good swimmer; he can dive, too, and make long leaps in the water. If he wants a boat, he has only to get on a loose piece of ice, and then he can float about at his ease. ”

“ In swimming, the Polar bear not only moves rapidly through the water, but is also capable of darting forward in such a way as to seize a fish before it can escape beyond reach. On the land, also, he can move with rapidity—his slouching trot being almost as fast as the gallop of a horse. ”

“ Although, owing to the rugged nature of the ground, it was impracticable to venture far inland with the deer-sledge, they were able to take quite long journeys along the seashore, and here many strange birds and beasts fell to their guns, and they met with many adventures.
It is doubtful whether there is any animal in the world, that, for strength and ferocity combined can be compared, to the polar bear, the king of the sea of ice. I do not say that he is the bravest animal ever I have met, but he is nevertheless daring enough in all conscience. ”

“ In regard to food, the Polar bear differs altogether from his congeners. He is almost wholly carnivorous in his habits. Indeed, were it otherwise, he could not exist in his icy kingdom—in many parts of which not a trace of vegetation is to be found. Fish of many kinds, birds, and their eggs, and four-footed beasts—when he can lay his claws upon them—all are welcome to his palate. Nor will he disdain to feast upon the carcass of the great whale—when chance, or the whale fishermen, leaves such a provender in his way. ”

“ Unlike all other bears, the Polar bear’s feet are shod with hair—short hairs set so close that one can’t see between them even with a magnifying glass. With this hairy sole to his feet, the Polar bear can walk on the smoothest ice without slipping. ”

“ This irresistible invitation was accepted by several of the auditory, including the baronet, Dashall, and the Squire, who were gratified beyond their anticipations, with a sight of the great polar bear, the desolate inhabitant of a frigid and dismal clime, where Nature has forbid the vegetative, and stinted the growth of the animal creation, with the exception of the shaggy wanderer of the desert and the floundering leviathan of the ocean. ”

“ The Polar bear attains to very formidable proportions; but when seamen speak of monsters fifteen feet in length, their auditors may be excused for withholding their belief. Ten feet would seem to be a maximum; and the bear need be large, strong, and muscular to master the large Arctic seal, especially the saddle-back and bladder-nose species. For though it swims well and dives well, it neither swims nor dives as well as the seal, and would therefore have but little chance of obtaining a sufficient livelihood if it could not attack and capture its victim on the ice-floes. ”

“ The fierce tyrant of the ice land himself, the polar bear, has a dingy yellow coat during the summer, but puts on furs as snowy as his own realms when once the summer sun has disappeared. These white winter furs are always warmer than dark ones. Birds which do not migrate to warmer regions of the earth in the cold season, have winter and summer suits of apparel, just in the same way as quadrupeds. ”