frequently kill the polar bear, as they
esteem its flesh and fat, and highly prize its skin. The flesh is not so
prized by Saxons, whether they be European or American. Dr Kane's
opinion would differ but little from that of Arctic voyagers on our side
of the Atlantic. The surgeon to the "Grinnell Expedition" in search of
Sir John Franklin thus characterises its flesh: "Bear is strong, very
strong, and withal most capricious meat; you cannot tell where to find
him. One day he is quite beefy and bearable; another, hircine, hippuric,
and detestable."

It is but fair to say that Captain Parry[38] regards the flesh of the
polar bear to be as wholesome as any other, though not quite so
palatable. His men suffered from indigestion after eating it; but this
he attributes to the quantity, and not to the quality, of the meat they
had eaten.

There seems to be little doubt that the liver is highly deleterious.
Some of the sailors of Barentz, who made a meal of it, were very sick,
"and we verily thought we should have lost them, for all their skins
came off from the foot to the head."

The skin of the bear is covered with long yellowish white hair, which,
is very close, and forms a wonderful defence against the cold, and
against the tusk of the animals on which it feeds. We heard of another
use of this hair from an officer on one of the late Arctic searching
expeditions. A bear was seen to come down a tolerably high and steep
declivity by sliding down on its hinder quarters, in an attitude known,
in more than one part of the British Islands, by the expressive name of
"katy-hunkers;" the shaggy hair with which it was covered serving like a
thick mat to protect the creature from injury. The Esquimaux prepare the
skin sometimes without ripping it up, and turning the hairy side inward
a warm sack-like bed is formed, into which they creep, and lie very
comfortably. Otho Fabricius, in his "Fauna Graenlandica" (p. 24), informs
us that the tendons are converted into sewing threads. The female bear
has one or two, and sometimes three, cubs at a time. They are born in
the winter, and the mother generally digs for them and for herself a
snug nestling-place in the snow. The males in the winter time leave the
coast, and go out on the ice-fields, to the edge of the open water after
seals.--_Adam White, in "Excelsior" (with additions)._

NELSON AND THE POLAR BEAR.

In 1773, Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, sailed on a voyage of
d