The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-03-15

take the nuts out of the box, and one
of them is brave enough to take the
nuts out of our fingers. They are
getting tame very fast.-Max Irwin
Carruth, in the New York Tribune.
KING OF THE FROZEN NORTH.
We have heard so much about the
North Pole lately that the little men
and women will, Of course, be inter-
ested in hearing about the wild ami
! mails which live there. In this cold,
cold country at the top of the world,
in spite of snow and ice, huge gla-
ciers and icebergs as big as noun
tains, where in winter there is no
sun, and where the ice on the sea is
five or six feet thick, there live many
creatures. The polar bear is one of
the most noted of these animals, and
just as the lion is called "the king of
beasts" among the forest animals, SO
the polar bear is called the king of
the frozen North. Like all true
polar animals. he is pure white all
the year around. He lives along the
coasts of the Arctic Ocean, all around
the North Pole, and seldom goes any
more than one days journey inland
on any shore.
This bear differs in many ways
from other bears. In the first place,
he is a tall, large animal, with a long
neck, small head, fat sides, and big
wide feet. All other bears have big
heads, very short necks, and on the
bottoms of their feet are large pads
covered with skin. But the pads of
the polar bears feet are covered with
thick hair, and this prevents his slip
ping about on the ice packs over
which he travels in search of food.
With his thick white coat of fur and
his warm blood he is fitted by nature
to resist any cold, and will jump into
the icy waters and swim about among
the ice as happily as any old duck on
village pond in the summer time.
One would hardly expect such a
heavy animal to be a good swimmer,
but he swims better than any other
bear, and catches his food with the
greatest ease. A full grown polar
bear weighs about 500 pounds, and
when he stands on his hind legs is
about seven feet in height.
His favorite food is p nice fat seal
or walrus, any kind of fish, or dead
whale He is able to run very quick
ly, and when he wants to catch a
seal he does it in a peculiar way of
his own. If the seal is asleep the
polar bear will walk off q little way,
slip into the water, swim about, and
get nearer and nearer to the edge of
Mthe ice on which the seal is sleeping.
Then, quite suddenly, up he pops,
right in front of the seal, who, if he
is still asleep, is easily caught, and
even If he is awake very seldom gets
away once the polar bear is as close
as that. One bite in the back of his
neck and the seal dies and is prompt
ly eaten, or just as much of him as
the bear wants.
The mother bear usually has a
family of two little ones at time,
but it is very rarely that the little
bears are seen. In the Geological
Gardens at Buffalo there was once a
tiny polar bear born, but for some
reason or other the mother bear
would not have anything to do with
it and left it out in the cold until it
was nearly frozen to death. Then
the superintendent of the gardens,
DR.. Crandall, with great difficulty got
it away from her. He wrapped it up
in some wool, took it to his house
and put it in a hot water bath, and
then laid 1t by the stove, with hot
water bags around. He fed it with
hot milk through a baby's feeding
bottle, and for three days and nights
he scarcely left it. For the first two
days it seemed to be doing pretty
well, but then it began to droop, and
finally died. This was the youngest
polar bear ever seen in captivity.
Polar bears have been brought all
those thousands Of miles to this coun-
try and trained to perform all sorts
of tricks. One polar bear at the Pan
American Exposition was taught to
draw little carriage with children
in it, and did not seem to mind it
at all, AS these bears are very strong,
it must have been easy work for him,
but no doubt he would rather have
been back in his icy home. where he
could do as he liked and catch nice
fat seals whenever he wanted them.
There is very large polar bear
now in the New York Geological
s1r T. AZ n