ays
longer, our travellers once more resumed their journey; and proceeded up
the great Mississippi, towards the cold countries of the North.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE.

THE POLAR BEAR.

A few weeks after leaving the Louisiana planter, our hunters were
receiving hospitality from a very different kind of host, a
"fur-trader." Their headquarters was Fort Churchill, on the western
shore of Hudson's Bay, and once the chief entrepot of the famous company
who have so long directed the destinies of that extensive region--
sometimes styled Prince Rupert's Land, but more generally known as the
"Hudson's Bay Territory."

To Fort Churchill they had travelled almost due north--first up the
Mississippi, then across land to Lake Superior, and direct over the lake
to one of the Company's posts on its northern shore. Thence by a chain
of lakes, rivers, and "portages" to York factory, and on northward to
Fort Churchill. Of course, at Fort Churchill they had arrived within
the range of the great white or Polar bear (_ursus maritimus_), who was
to be the _next_ object of their "chasse." In the neighbourhood of York
factory, and even further to the south, they might have found bears of
this species: for the _ursus maritimus_ extends his wanderings all round
the shores of Hudson's Bay--though not to those of James' Bay further
south. The latitude of 55 degrees is his southern limit upon the
continent of America; but this only refers to the shores of Labrador and
those of Hudson's Bay. On the western coast Behring's Straits appears
to form his boundary southward; and even within these, for some distance
along both the Asiatic and American shores, he is one of the rarest of
wanderers. His favourite range is among the vast conglomeration of
islands and peninsulas that extend around Hudson's and Baffin's Bays--
including the icebound coasts of Greenland and Labrador--while going
westward to Behring's Straits, although the great quadruped is
occasionally met with, he is much more rare. Somewhat in a similar
manner, are the white bears distributed in the eastern hemisphere.
While found in great plenty in the Frozen Ocean, in its central and
eastern parts, towards the west, on the northern coasts of Russia and
Lapland, they are never seen--except when by chance they have strayed
thither, or been drifted upon masses of floating ice.

It is unnecessary to remark that this species of bear lives almost
exclusively near the sea, and _by_ th