she produces her young, and remains with them beneath the snow from December to March-the bear having power to live long periods without food-when she emerges into the outer air, bringing with her the baby bears, who are then about as large as rabbits. As time passes on the breath of the family, together with the warmth exhaled from their bodies, serves to enlarge the cell, so that in proportion to their increasing dimensions the accommodations are increased to suit them.

This curious abode is not sought by every polar bear. None of the males trouble themselves to spend so much time in a state of seclusion. The habit of hibernation is common to most if not to all true bears, and we find the white bear of the polar regions, the brown bear of Europe, and the black bear of North America agree

in this curious habit. Before retiring into winter-quarters the bear eats enormously, and, driven on by an unfailing instinct, resorts to the most nutritious diet, so that it becomes prodigiously fat. During the three months of her seclusion the polar bear takes no food, but exists upon the store of fat which has been accumulated before retiring to her winter home. The bear during this period exhibits the curious phenomenon of the "tappen," a hard concreted substance, which plugs up the intestines, and seems to be of service in retaining the animal in condition.

The polar bear nearly equals in size and strength the formidable grizzly bear. A full-grown one will attack and kill a bull-walrus three times its own size. His tactics are to conceal himself behind an ice-hillock, and watching till the walrus comes floating past, spring on its back, and holding on by its teeth to the creature's neck, batter in its skull with repeated blows of its tremendous fore-paw. According to Mr. Charles Francis Hall, author of "Arctic Researches," the white bear has a very ingenious way of killing the walrus, which is represented in the above engraving.

1

"In August, every fine day the walrus makes his way to the shore, draws his huge body up on the rocks, and basks in the sun. If this happen near the base of a cliff, the ever-watchful bear takes advantage of the circumstance to attack this formidable game in this way: The bear mounts a cliff, and throws down upon the animal's head a large rock, calculating the distance and the course with astonishing accuracy, and thus crushing the thick, bullet-proof skull. If the walrus is not instantly killed-simply stunned-the bear rushes down to the walrus, seizes the rock, and hammers away at the head till the skull is broken. A fat feast follows. Unless the bear is very hungry it eats only the blubber of the walrus, seal, and whale."

The polar bear's manner of catching the seal is also noteworthy. When the seal is on the ice by its hole, basking in the sun, the bear lies down on his side and hitches himself along toward his game. The seal, meanwhile, is taking its naps of about ten seconds each, ultimately raising its head and surveying the entire horizon before composing itself again to brief slumber. As soon as the seal raises its head the bear keeps perfectly still, but, according to the natives' belief, "talks" to it. The seal, if it sees "any thing, sees but the head, which it takes for another seal, and it sleeps again. Again the bear hitches himself along, and once more the seal raises its head, only to be talked to again, and again deceived. suit goes on till the seal is caught or till he makes his he seldom does.

Thus the purescape, which

The particulars related by Mr. Lamont, author of "Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas," attending the capture of two orphan polar bears is curious, and worth relating as affording an instance of the wonderful affection of the most ferocious of brute creatures for its little ones.

The two Arctic huntsmen, after a hard day with the bears and walruses among the icebergs, returned to their vessel and retired to bed. They had not lain two hours, however, before the watch on deck came with the news that three bears were at that moment taking a nocturnal promenade on a little ice island a short distance off. Tired and sleepy as were the hunters, the opportunity was too splendid a one to be lost, especially as, according to the hunters' experience, bears were the least plentiful of the large game abounding in the neighborhood. The watch, who had observed the animals through his glass (there is, of course, no such thing as a dark summer night in the region in question), declared them to be an old bear and two cubs, and that they were making their way to a spot where lay

the disrobed carcase of one of their own species shot some time before.

"We had a row of several miles along the shore before we overtook the bears, and at last discovered them seated on a strip of land ice. Lord Kennedy then agreed to get out, and by running try to cut them off from the hills, while I should continue in the boat and row as fast as possible up to the edge of this ice, in case they should take to the sea. We got to within about five hundred yards of the bears before they perceived us. The old one stood up on her hindlegs, like, a dancing bear, to have a good look at the boat, and a moment's inspection seemed to convince her it was time to be off. She set off at the top of her speed, with her two cubs at her heels, along the smooth surface of the ice. My companion, although an excellent runner, could not keep up with them, so he got into the boat again, and we rowed with might and main to keep in sight of the bears; but they got far ahead of us, and we began to think they would beat us, when luckily they got to the end of the strip of smooth 'fast' ice, and before them lay a great expanse of soft, mud, intersected with numerous little channels and with much rough ice, left by the tide aground among it. This seemed to embarrass them very much, as the cubs couldn't jump over the channels, and the old bear appeared to be getting very anxious and uneasy; but she showed great patience and forbearance with her cubs, always waiting, after she had jumped over a channel, until they swam across, and affectionately assisting them to clamber up the steep sides of the rocky places; nevertheless the mixture of sticky mud with rough ice and halffrozen water soon reduced the unhappy cubs to a pitiable state of distress, and we heard them growling plaintively, as if they were upbraiding their mother for dragging them to such a disagreeable place.

"We had got the boat into a long narrow channel among the mud, which contained water enough to float her, and we were now rapidly gaining on the bears, when all of a sudden the boat ran hard aground, and not an inch farther would she go. This seemed as if it would turn the fate of the day in favor of the bears, as we did not think it possible to overtake them afoot among the mud; but there still remained the chances of a long shot, as the boat had grounded within two hundred yards of the animals. Lord David fired, and struck the old bear in the back, paralyzing her; we then scrambled through the icy mud up to where she lay, and dispatched her. The cubs, quite black with mud and shivering with cold, lay upon the body of their