The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-05-09
THE POLAR BEARS FOOD.
How the Ferocious Animal Attacks His
Prey.

How the Ferocious Animal Attacks His
Prey.
OF all the curious ways that the polar
bear has of securing his food / know OF
none more strange and interesting than
that related by Captain Hall and DIR.
Ray, two trustworthy travellers in this
country of strange sights.
They ave known the polar bear to
take a stone or huge chunk of ice in its
fore paws, and from favorable height,
as a cliff or precipitous ice-hummock,
hurl the missile against the head of a
walrus-an enormous brute twice the
size of the bear on an average-and so
stun him that Bruin could rush in and
complete the destruction at his leisure,
and thus secure a months rations at a
single coup.
Many of the Eskimo of my acquaint-
ance also spoke of this curious but eff
fective way the polar bear uses when
| circumstances are favorable.
The most common food of the ice
bear las the Germans very appropri-
ately call. this BEAST is the common
seal of the Arctic regions. This latter
brute is the wariest of the north, and
both Eskimo and polar bear have to
display their keenest strategy to catch it.
In the summer, when the snow is off
the ice Of the oceans shore and islets.
the seals can be plainly seen as black
dots on the level ice probably asleep,
but always near their holes, which lead
down through the thick ice to the
water below, and into which they can
throw themselves by the least move
ment. Bruin, seeing one afar. walks
up as near as he deems it safe, and
then begins crawling on his wary prey.
The seal, if it be sunny and pleasant,
takes short maps, relieved by shorter
moments when it is scanning the
vicinity for signs of any enemy's
approach. During these times the bear
is very quiet and resting still as death
itself, with eyes apparently closed,
though really a corner of each is kept
open, and in this way he hopes that the
seal will take him for a hammock of
snow, an appearance which his white
coat readily helps him to assume. Dur
ing the maps he bitches forward with
greater Or less rapidity according to his
nearness to the seal and consequent
fear of being heard or seen. When
quite close to his prey his approach is
very slow, and when but ten or twelve
yards away and Mr.. Seal is in the depths
Of a good nap Bruin makes a rush and
with a single stroke of his powerful
paw knocks the smaller brute senseless
and so far away from the hole in the
ice that it can not escape by that way,
even If the blow is not fatal at once.
In the winter time the ice is covered
with snow and this is ''hollowed OUT
by the seal into a little snow-house
covering the hole through the ice, and
connecting at the top of the dome with
an aperture about the size of a silver
quarter, called the ''blow-hole," for il
is through this that the seal breathes
when in want of fresh air. Here the
polar bear watches for many a long
hour, If necessary, and when the first
few puffs or snorts of the seal are heart
he brushes in the fragile dome of the
seals snow-house with his paw, impal
ing the creature on his curved claws
and proceeds to show how polar bears
at least, a subsist in the Arctic win
ter. -Frederick Schwatka, in Philadel
mia Press.