Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-11-06
HUNTING P0LA AR
BEAR GOOD SPORT
GEORGES ZAFIR0PULo TELLS OF
EXCITING TIMES IN THE
FAR NORTH.
ANIMALS NOT AFRAID OF MAN.
No Great Danger Attached to Sport Pro-
vided the Hunter Does Not
Lose His Head.
ICE AND SNOW ARE TREAcHERoUs.

NE AM SNON AXE 1REAN nEROUS-
Few people realize probably that we
can ihd nowadays splendid facilities for
hunting, with excellent chance of sue
cess, too, the bears and the other ami
mails of the polar regions, says the New
York Tribune. Such an enterprise is
easily undertaken, not only in a rea-
| lively short space of time, but under
| conditions of security as we'll. In Ger
many this sort of sport has been devel
| oped for some time, and actually every
year one of the great amateurs, NJ. de
Gisberg of Hamburg, organizes Jointly
| several Arctic expeditions which have
no other object hut that of the chase
OF one of these expeditions Georges Ia
hropnlo gives an account in "L'Illustra-
| ton"
The party left Drontheim on the morn
! ing of July ON board the Lof0ten. a
| heavy Norwegian steamboat, about fifty
| two meters long and pretty well manned.
| There We're ten hunters, each of whom
had his own cabin. The numerous com
pany which travelled with them con
| tanned even the curers of skins, so that
all trophies might be safely preserved
A doctor went with The expedition.
On July they reached the polar seas.
where they ploughed about till they ar
rived at, on the 2Ith, the Isle of
| Bears,
Danger Not Great.
A bear chase is not very dangerous if
1 one has GOODNESS of mind and n good
gun. Taking everything into account.
| 1t is easier properly 30 wound bear
than to catch a rabbit between hedges.
because, in spite of his ferocity, the bear
knows very little about defending him
self against man, armed as man is now
| adays. Besides, the Arctic bear does not
recognize man as such, and takes him.
for the most part. for u seal. The pilot
among the hunters, perched in his crows
nest on the mast of the vessel, and pro.
vided with a huge telescope can distm-
gIish, in clear weather, lear five kilo-
meters off, or further, So the hunter has
time 10 watch his prey and to prepare
his Ian of attack. One can have splen-
did hunts on the iceberes as we'll
Sometimes the bear takes To the water
to escape. In this case he Is lost. for
he cannot swim as quickly as a boat
can follow, and the hunter can kill him
almost without running any risks. 1t
is fact worthy Of remark that one
ball will do it il well plaeed-that is to
say, placed in the head. Many bears
LATTER being shot in the heart have swan
100 or 200 metres.
Weather Factor.
The dangers TO which one Is exposed
are less IN the nctual hunt than IN the,
incidentals. 4 hunter has always rea-
son TO fear the sudden breaking of the
ice beneath his feet. The thick snow
with which il Is covered often hides
Ierevices or entire ruptures. Then there,
is the dense fog, which rises with as
tonishing suddenness; there are storms
which may injure the vessel. or ut least
keep IL for long time imprisoned be-
tween ice foes driven by the wind
The state Of the weather makes tho
greatest difference in these expeditions
An intense fog may keep one absolute
~ motiouless for ten days Without this
circumstance, Mr., Zatiropulo says. his
| hunters record would have been much
more satisfactory. As il was, at the
end Of fifteen days it shared twenty
bears, and the party had captured as
| well live cub six months old. Be
sides. there were thirty-one seals, two
of them huge and two blue foxes i'm
| the bag, The party collected twenty-one
kinds of birds, which swarmed around
| the islands.
Gull Points Way.
| This particular expedition reached the
| latitude of so degrees at the south Of
and very near the part of land called
| Francis Joseph land Bear island they
| discovered in an odd fashion. They had
left the icebergs and were looking every
| where for the island without success, al
| though they knew that the land was
twenty kilomcters long and had noun
! tains 600 meters high After eXhansting
J all the known means used in such cases,
they were looking despondently az the
seaguiis which were always lowering
about and following them in whatever
direction the boat took Evidently the
land was near, but whereY 4 gull
SKINNED by them and. plunging into
the sea, picked up ing gardinc, with
| which she started on n direct flight home
10 give it 10. her young. is showed
them the direction of land, al half an
hour later, in lifting Of the fog, they
saw Bear island only little way Off.
Good Times Aboard
The time on board ship seems to have
passed as pleasantly az 1t does on any
ordinary yachting trip in the Mediterra-
mean. Photography and bridge were the
chief amusements In the remote soil.
tudes Of the polar seas other means Of
| killing time were used-menns which
kept the hunters reminded Of the civil
ized world. Certain ones ainouG them
congregated oftea in the evening, aud
then the petrels and the white guls
which gIided silently through the haze
of the midnight SIM would hear deafeu-
ing noise Of songs and climbing glassses
But as soon as the haze dispersed, when
the sun appeared. strangely, in Ghe midst
| Of his superb surroundings OF fantastic
hunmocks, immaculate snow and SEA- the
color Of ink nj such a solemn hour al
most all The hunters Went all together on
the bridge never tired ~ admiriug the
great spectacle
Want Funerals Held at Night.