y 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. 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.

This is a full-grown bear, of course. Young bears cannot do all these
things; they have to stay with their mothers on shore, where they eat
seals and seaweed; the seaweed is their vegetable, I suppose. When the
young bears travel and get tired, they get on their mother's back, and
ride there quite safely, whether in the water or on land.

Bears are very fond of their young, and will do anything to defend
them. There is a story told of a poor mother-bear and her two cubs
which is almost too sad to tell, but it will make us think kindly of
the bear, so I will tell it to you.

Years ago a ship which had gone to the North Pole to make discoveries
got fixed tight in the ice; one morning, while the ship was still
unable to get loose, a man at the lookout gave warning that three
bears were coming across the ice toward the ship. The crew had killed
a walrus a few days before, and no doubt the bears had smelled it. The
flesh of the walrus was roasting in a fire on the ice, and two of the
bears ran eagerly to it, dragged out the bits that were not burnt, and
began to eat them; they were the cubs, but were almost as large as
their mother.

The sailors threw some more of the flesh they had on board on to the
ice. These the old bear fetched; and putting them before her cubs, she
divided them, giving them each a large piece, and only keeping a small
bit for herself. When she came to fetch the last piece the sailors
shot at the cubs, killing them; they also wounded the mother, but not
mortally; the poor