Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-04-21
POLAR BEARS ON ICEBERG.
Six Of Them Were AfIoat on the Crane
Banks.

Banks.
New York Sun.-The polar bear
story told by the officers of the steam
ship Hanover on her last trip to Balti.
more is quite unusual, but not improb-
able. They say that when entering
the eastern edge of the Grand banks of
Newfoundland they sighted large ice
berg and through a glass discovered
that 1t was tenanted by two or three
polar bears. Drawing nearer, they
could see with the naked eye six bears
clambering around on the ice mass.
Unless appearances were deceptive it
Is evident that these involuntary wan
derers were making an unusually long
journey to the south, and were bound
for swift destruction by drowning.
They had probably not suffered for
food, as the Greenland and Labrador
waters through which they had passed
abound with seal, but they were finally
in region where bear food is scarce
and icebergs rapidly disappear
There is no doubt that some of these
animals perish by being carried out to
sea on ice foes. The bear that lived
for % years in the geological gardens
OF London, and whose death some years
ago brought grief to many youthful adj
mirers, was captured when young on a
floating piece of foe ice south of Spitz-
bergen. From 5 to 90 bears on rare
occasions have been seen on the drift.
ing foe near this archipelago. The
westerly drift, which heaps great
masses of ice against the eastern
shores Of Greenland sometimes brings
bears with it from faraway Spitzber-
gen, and there is good evidence that
these immigrants on one occasion
drifted around Cape Farewell to the
western coast of Greenland. where
they were shot. The animal is now very
scarce in Danish Greenland. and in the
best of seasons only 40 to 50 are killed
there, and most of them are pilgrims
from the north brought down on the
floating foe from Melville bay or Smith
sound.
In spite of the reputation of these
animals for timidity the travellers
among them are likely to be imperti-
nent. A bear some years ago invaded
the entrance to an Eskimo winter hut.
but fortunately was slain by the badly
frightened inmates. On another occa,
sion bear thrust his head in through
the membrane which serves the pur.
pose of window glass in one of these
huts, but retreated when the solitary
inmate, woman. pushed a wisp of
! blazing hay in his face. The woman
might have Jared badly if it had not
been for hunter who shot the animal
as he was trying to scratch a hole
through the wall on the other side of
the hut Arctic Nimrods regard the
white bear as Indifferent sport, because
ii usually scampers away over the ice
fields at the sight of an enemy or takes
to the nearest water. Mr.. Baldwin
wrote from Franz Josef land that in
nine cases out of ten hunting the polar
bear was about as much sport as shoot
ig the family COW, but the mother bear
will fight hard for her cubs, and IL she
gets within striking distance of her foe
he has little chance to escape. With
modern guns there is often danger OF
overconfidence.
We may imagine that the conditions
under which the animals sighted by the
Hanover were found were beginning to
be little uncomfortable. There may
have been an occasional touch of mild
ness in the air which they did not en-.
joy We should look in vain for the
white bear on the south coast of Ice,
land, where the warmer waters of the
Atlantic impress him as unfavorable
for comfort, bur he is found on the
north coast. Capt Sverdrup did not
find the bear on any of the islands
which he discovered north of the Parry
archipelago or in the neighboring wat.
ers. doubtless for the reason that the
favorite food of the bear is scarce in
that region. Thus. while the habitat
of the polar bear girdles the world in
the world in the arctic regions, it is
narrowed even in that zone by the food
supply. Nansen found no form of life
worth of the saith parallel II is only the
unfortunate animals which unwittingly
set sail on drift ice that get south or
the regions adapted for their home.