er skinne to Amsterdam."

This is about the earliest record of an encounter with this formidable
creature; sailors now find that they can be attacked with most advantage
in the water. When in this element, they try to escape by swimming to
the ice, and when the ice is in the form of loose and detached small
floes, Dr Sutherland has seen them dive underneath, and appear on the
opposite side. Scoresby records, that when shot at a distance, and able
to escape, the bear has been observed to retire to the shelter of a
hummock, and, as if aware of the styptical effect of cold, apply snow to
the wound.

In common with nearly every animal, this huge despot of the North is
strongly attached to its young. Captain Inglefield, on his return home
from Baffin's Bay in 1852, pursued three bears, as he was anxious to get
a supply of fresh meat for his Esquimaux dogs. The trio were evidently a
mother and twins. The captain was anxious to secure the cubs alive as
trophies, and was cautious in shooting at the mother. All three fell,
and were brought on board the _Isabel_. He records that it was quite
heartrending to see the affection that existed between them. When the
cubs saw their mother was wounded, they commenced licking her wounds,
regardless of their own sufferings. At length the mother began to eat
the snow, a sure sign that she was mortally wounded. "Even then her care
for the cubs did not cease, as she kept continually turning her head
from one to the other, and, though roaring with pain, she seemed to warn
them to escape if possible. Their attachment was as great as hers, and I
was thus obliged to destroy them all. It went much against my feelings,
but the memory of my starving dogs reconciled me to the necessity."

The female bear when pursued carries or pushes her cubs forwards, and
the little creatures are described as placing themselves across her path
to be shoved forwards. Scoresby mentions an instance where, when
projected some yards in advance, the cubs ran on until she overtook
them, when they alternately adjusted themselves for a second throw.

It is chiefly on the seal that this bear feeds, and it displays great
cunning in catching them as they sleep on the ice, or come to the holes
in the ice to breathe, when it destroys them with one blow of its
formidable and heavy paw. For its mode of getting the walrus we refer
the reader to "Excelsior," vol. i. p. 37. Notwithstanding his strength
and ferocity, the Esquimaux