Carl was getting his rope ready while Art [[157]]got out his bow and arrows for the hunt. No guns were to be used. Dad wanted to have this entirely a stunt for the bow and the roping, and for motion pictures. Kellerman had his two big motion picture cameras on deck, and a good many of the crowd were using their still cameras. Also Bob Peary had a small movie camera but he was on watch in the engine room so I ran it for him the best I could!
The Morrissey went right up close to the berg and we got a lot of pictures. There was a big mother bear and two cubs which had been born about February, they told me. They were pretty big and husky and weighed probably more than 150 pounds each. It was queer to see the bear away out here in the water, nearly twenty miles from land. But later Mr. Rasmussen told us often they travel hundreds of miles almost all the way in the water. Swimming seems to be about as easy for them as walking. Cap’n Bob [[158]]has found them swimming away down off the Labrador.
The Polar Bears on the Iceberg.
As we got close the old bear walked right down to the water’s edge with the two cubs following. We headed away from the berg and swung around to leeward to let them calm down. That seemed to satisfy them. Perhaps they thought the ship was just a big dirty piece of ice.
Anyway, they went back up on the ice and settled down. The two cubs lay down close to the mother, and Harry, looking through the glasses, said he could see that they were getting their breakfast.
When we came close again for Art to get a bow and arrow shot the old bear got really worried and made for the water. They swam off in a row that looked like three butter balls, the old one first and the two little ones trailing. They are not really quite white, but seem to be sort of yellowish, almost butter color, especially when just their heads [[159]]show in the water. Their black noses show out more than anything and their eyes.
We came within thirty feet of them in the Morrissey two or three times, taking pictures. The mother bear would turn around and growl at us, and sort of grunt to the children to hustle along and get away from this strange creature that was following them.
We wanted to get them back on the berg, if possible, so we put a dory over with Carl in it and rowed by Ralph and Joe, to try to herd them toward the ice again. Several times after a lot of trouble they got them headed back near the ice but they wouldn’t go up on it again. It was a queer game of tag.
