_From the Tales of a Voyager._
With two boats, we assailed six of these animals, who had collected
round the "crang," or carcass of a whale. After lying at the bottom
of the sea for some time, the body of the whale rises to the surface,
probably buoyed up by gas generated by putrefaction in its entrails.
This circumstance is by no means uncommon, especially late in the
summer, when time has been allowed for fermentation; but it seems to
point out that the depths of the Arctic Ocean contain few or no animals
to prey upon the numerous carcasses which are let sink after flinching,
since, otherwise, the mass would become pierced and unable to float,
if not wholly devoured. We slew five of the six bears, and brought a
half-grown cub on board alive. This poor harmless beast was wounded in
two or three places superficially with a boat hook, but its disposition
seemed scarcely to have warranted these trifling blows. I was moved to
compassion as it sat upon the jaw-bone of a whale, which projected
beneath the tafrail, at one moment devouring pieces of its mother and
sister with avidity, and at the next stretching its throat and blaring
out mournfully, when a fragment of ice met its view, passing astern as
we sailed on our course. It was about the size of a sheep, and after
their tea the sailors got it down below, and turned it loose betwixt
decks, from whence it sent up all hands with precipitation, some of them
quitting their berths half-naked, as if a fall had been called. After
a sufficient allowance of frolic had gratified the crew, a daring
Shetlander collared the bear as if it had been a dog, and fastened a
fresh rope round its neck, and having forced it to leap overboard, the
rope's end was thrown to the boat's crew of a visiter, at that moment
about to leave us, and it was towed or rather led away. The following
day I saw its skin stretched on the shrouds of the vessel, to whose
captain it had been presented. The other bear chace was after a
monstrous male, who resolutely faced us, and would have boarded our boat
had it not shot past him. He was flanked by the ship, which had run down
upon him as he lay exactly in her course, and by the boat, which had got
between him and the ice, and seeing no other resource, he turned upon
the boat. When discovered, he was so near the floe that, wishing to
intercept him, we leaped into the boat, and lowered away without waiting
for a gun; we were, therefore, obliged to meet him at close quarters.
But while we stood prepared, Shipley with a lance, and myself with the
boat's hatchet, to receive his onset, the skiff was allowed to keep on
her headway, and we passed beyond our foe, who took advantage of the
error, and dashed forward to the ice, which he gained just as our boat
in pursuit of him ran her nose up against the floe, and almost tripped
his heels.
It was said by the harpooner, who first caught sight of this bear, that
he was floating on his back in the water; and Greenlanders maintain, how
truly or wrongly I know not, that bears sometimes throw themselves into
this position to avoid being seen. Another reason for this attitude they
affirm to be, a power possessed by bears of flinging themselves suddenly
forward, by a violent jerk, whilst extended on their backs, so as to
bring themselves at once into a boat; but this is a feat of which I do
not believe them capable. Whilst speaking of bears, I may mention here,
that the mate of the Dundee nearly lost his life this summer, from the
fury of a she brownie, who attacked him on the ice. After killing her
cub, he had fired at her, and struck her on the jaw, which remained
gasping, as if dislocated, and believing her _hors de combat_, he
got upon the floe, to take possession of her slain offspring. The she
bear, however, though she had fled, now returned, and rushing towards
her enemy, threw him down, but was unable to mangle him; for though her
mouth was wide open, she had lost the ability to close it. Nevertheless,
she mounted upon his prostrate body, and trampled it severely, before
the crew of his boat could come to his rescue. When they did arrive, a
sailor who brought the gun lost his presence of mind at the sight before
him, and stood staring at the scene inactive; others, more bold, thrust
the bear aside with lances; and the mate being freed from its weight,
arose, took the gun from its bearer, and shot away the unlucky lower jaw
of the beast completely. She then fell a victim to the weapons of his
men. When I received this account from him, he was nearly recovered from
the violence he had suffered from the enraged brute, but not till after
having been for some time confined to his hammock.
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