When a mother polar bear scents danger she jumps into the water and her
cub holds fast to her tail while she tows it to safety. But when no
danger seems to threaten she wants it to “paddle its own canoe,” and
boxes its ears or ducks its head under water if it insists on being too
lazy to swim for itself.]
The wealth of mammal life in the seas along the shores of North America
almost equaled that on the land. On the east coast there were many
millions of harp and hooded seals and walruses, while the Greenland
right and other whales were extremely abundant. On the west coast were
millions of fur seals, sea-lions, sea-elephants, and walruses, with an
equal abundance of whales and hundreds of thousands of sea otters.
[Illustration: