The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-05-13
BRUlN AS 4 SEAlER.
How the Polar Bear Secures al Occasion
Feast.

Like conditions produce similar habits
n men and animals. During the cold
and darkness OF the polar winter in
Greenland there are no other substances
than ice AMI snow that can be used as
building materials and no possibility Of
making extended journeys TO procure
better. Consequently the Esquimaux,
or. as they are now called. Innuits.
build, Is is well known, their winter
habitations OF ice aad snow.
The Greenland seal does the same for
the temperature OF the Greenland win
te- is too severe for her unshel' cred
young. Breaking hole through
the snow-covered ice before il IS
thick, the female seal digs out
with her fipper a space sufficient
for her purpose. q space which
sne forms into dome-shapei apart
nent resembling the interior Of an In
mutt hut Here the young seal is born,
and here II rests upon its ice-shelf until
the feeble arctic sun melts away the
snow that shelters am protects It, after
which it is old enough to take care Of
itself
One Of the most incomp-ehensible
circumstances connected with this seal
nursery is the manner IN which the
mother is able TO feed her baby. Diving
through the hole, which she always
keeps clear, breaking the new ice as
soon as II forms, she travels for miles,
and is not only able to return directly
20 the hole near which her young one
awaits her. but catches fish in the utter
darkness, below many feet Of ice and
snow, of the water in which she swims.
How this is possible is an uasolved
problem in natural history. Her nur-
sary is well hidden. Above her stretch
miles upon miles Of untrodden snow,
that betrays no sign of her retreat. ex-
cent a very small aperture from which
issues a thin and almost invisible
stream of warm vapor, the breath Of the
seals
The unaided intelligence OF man would
be unable to discover seal. ielu, as the
nursery Of these animals IS called The
Innuits discover It By means o. their
dogs. The white bear finds it out for
himself When he encounter a blow
hole" or brea thing hole, he not only
digs about il with all the N ight he has,
but leaps up and down, using his pom
derous weight TO crush in the
snow that roofs the seals iglu. Hav-
ing effected an entrance, the savage
housebreaker catches the babv-seaL the
mother easily escaping before he can
get 70 her. He now commits a cruel
deed-so barborous and fendish a
stratagem, il would seem that 10 ami
NAL but man could be guilty Of it
Catching the helpless little seal-baby
by one clipper, he deliberately reaches
down and plays il about in the water
beneath the ice, in order TO tempt its
mother within reach The fisher Is al
ways successful
Drawn by maternal love and solicit
tude, the mother-seal rushes 10 the res
cue Of her offspring. the bear catches
her with his disengaged claw, and gets
supply OF meat that satisfies even his
voracious appetite, and ena bles him 10
live a while without food. for with
bears and Innuits N Greenland, It is
often a long time between meals
The Innuits themselves have learned
this trick OF the white bear. When a
young sea- is captured a cord Is at
tached TO a hind fipper, and the little
creature IS let down through the ice,
while the hunter watches the opening
in the ice, ready 70 spear the mother as
she appears TO help her little oue.-N.
\. Ledger.