In the month of June, 1812, a female bear, with two cubs, approached the ship I commanded, and was shot. The cubs, not attempting to escape, were taken alive. These animals, though at first evidently very unhappy, became at length, in some measure, reconciled to their situation, and being tolerably tame, were allowed occasionally to go at large about the deck. While the ship was moored to a floe, a few days after they were taken, one of them, having a rope fastened round its neck, was thrown overboard. It immediately swam to the ice, got upon it, and attempted to escape. Finding itself, however, detained by the rope, it endeavoured to disengage itself in the following ingenious way:—Near the edge of the floe was a crack in the ice, of considerable length, but only eighteen inches or two feet wide, and three or four feet deep. To this spot the bear returned; and when, on crossing the chasm, the bight of the rope fell into it, he placed himself across the opening; then, suspending himself by his hind feet, with a leg on each side, he dropped his head and most of his body into the chasm, and, with a foot applied to each side of the neck, attempted for some minutes to push the rope over his head. Finding this scheme ineffectual, he removed to the main ice, and running with great impetuosity from the ship, gave a remarkable pull on the rope; then, going backward a few steps, he repeated the jerk. At length, after repeated attempts to escape this way, every failure of which he announced by a significant growl, he yielded himself to his hard necessity, and lay down on the ice in angry and sullen silence.
Accidents with bears occasionally occur; not so many, however, as the ferocity of these animals, and the temerity of the sailors, might lead one to expect. Some of the early voyagers to the Polar Seas had hard conflicts with them. Barentz’s crew especially were often in danger from them, but always succeeded either in conquering or repelling them. Two, however, of the crew of a vessel which had anchored near Nova Zembla, landed on an island at the mouth of the Weigats, and, impelled by curiosity, wandered some distance from the beach; but, whilst unconscious of danger, one of them was suddenly seized on the back by a bear, and brought to the earth. His companion ran off, and gave the alarm, and a party of his shipmates came to their assistance. The bear stood over its prey during their approach without the least appearance of fear and, on their attack, sprang upon one of their number, and made him also a victim to its ferocity and power. The rest now fled in confusion, and could not be induced to renew the conflict. Three sailors only among the crew had sufficient courage to combat with this formidable animal; they attacked it, and, after a dangerous struggle, killed it, and rescued the mangled bodies of their two unfortunate shipmates.
Captain Cook, of the Archangel, of Lynn, being near the coast of Spitzbergen, in the year 1788, landed, accompanied by his surgeon and mate. While traversing the shore, the captain was unexpectedly attacked by a bear, which seized him in an instant between its paws. At this awful juncture, when a moment’s pause must have been fatal to him, he called to his surgeon to fire; who, with admirable resolution and steadiness, discharged his piece as directed, and providentially shot the bear through the head. The captain, by this prompt assistance, was preserved from being torn to pieces.
On a more recent occasion, a commander of a whale ship was in a similar danger. Captain Hawkins, of the Everthorpe, of Hull, when in Davis’s Strait, in July, 1818, seeing a very large bear, took a boat, and pushed off in pursuit of it. On reaching it, the captain struck it twice with a lance in the breast; and, while in the act of recovering his weapon for another blow, the enraged animal sprang up, and seized him by the thigh, and threw him over its head into the water. Fortunately it did not repeat its attack, but exerted itself to escape. This exertion, when the attention of every one was directed towards their captain, was not made in vain, for it was allowed to swim away without further molestation.
With regard to curious adventures, on one occasion a bear, which was attacked by a boat’s crew, made such formidable resistance, that it was enabled to climb the side of the boat and take possession of it, while the intimidated crew fled for safety to the water, supporting themselves by the gunwale and rings of the boat, until, by the assistance of another party from the ship it was shot, as it sat inoffensively in the stern. With regard to narrow escapes, a sailor, who was pursued on a field of ice by a bear, when at a considerable distance from assistance, preserved his life by throwing down an article of clothing whenever the bear gained upon him, on which it always suspended the pursuit until it had examined it, and thus gave him time to obtain some advance. In this way, by means of a hat, a jacket, and a neckerchief, successively cast down, the progress of the bear was retarded, and the sailor escaped from the danger that threatened him, in the refuge afforded him by his vessel.
The rein-deer, Cervus tarandus, deserves to be mentioned amongst the quadrupeds of the Arctic regions. I have never seen one myself, though it is known to inhabit almost every part of Spitzbergen.
Our remarks must now be directed to the Birds which frequent the sea and coast of Spitzbergen.
The brent goose and eider duck, Anas bernicla and Anas mollissima, are found in these regions; the former occurring in considerable numbers near the coast of Greenland, but not in Spitzbergen, and the latter frequenting all the islands in the Greenland Sea. The puffin, or Greenland parrot, Alca arctica, feeding on shrimps, is rarely seen out of sight of land, but is very common near the coast of Spitzbergen. Alca alle, also, the little auk or roach, is an extremely numerous species in some situations in the Polar Seas. They occur in the water in thousands together, and sometimes in like abundance on the pieces of ice. They dive quickly on being alarmed, and on the approach of thick weather they are particularly noisy.
The fulmar, Procellaria glacialis, is the constant companion of the whale-fisher. It joins his ship immediately on passing the Shetland Islands, and accompanies it through the trackless ocean to the highest accessible latitudes. It keeps an eager watch for anything thrown overboard; the smallest particle of fatty substance can scarcely escape it. As such, a hook baited with a piece of fat meat or blubber, and towed by a long twine over the ship’s stern, is a means employed by the sailor-boys for taking them. In the spring of the year, before they have glutted themselves with the fat of the whale, they are pretty good eating. They are remarkably easy and swift on the wing, and can fly to windward in the highest storms. Though very few fulmars should be seen when a whale is about being captured, yet, as soon as the flensing commences, they rush in from all quarters, and seize, with great audacity, all the pieces of fat that come in their way. They frequently glut themselves so completely as to be unable to fly, in which case, when not relieved by a quantity being disgorged, they rest on the ice until restored by digestion. The fulmar is a bold and very hardy bird. Its feathers being thick, it is not easily killed with a blow. Its bite, from the crookedness, strength, and sharpness of its bill, is very severe. Fulmars differ in colour; some are a dirty grey, others much paler, and totally white on the breast and belly. In size this bird is a little smaller than a duck. Beneath its feathers is a thick bed of fine grey down. When carrion is scarce, the fulmar sometimes points out the whale to the fisher by following in its track. They cannot make much impression on the dead whale until some more powerful animal tears away the skin.
The tysté, or doveca, Colymbus grylle, is a beautifully formed bird, occurring in considerable numbers in icy situations, at various distances from land. It is so watchful, and so quick at diving, that, if fired at without precaution to conceal the flash of the powder, it generally escapes the shot. It feeds on shrimps and small fishes. The common colour is black, but the feet are all red.