Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/304

290 during the day, and performs its rambles by night. This habit is attributed to the fact that the soles of its feet are covered by a skin so tender as to be easily blistered by the sun-heated rocks which constitute the surface of its mountain-home.

In the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) the bear family possesses an aquatic member. It is inferior in size only to the grizzly bear, and is scarcely second to him in strength and ferocity. Its color is silvery white, tinged with a slightly yellowish hue, which varies in intensity with different individuals. The neck is longer in proportion to the



body than in any other bear, and the head is far smaller, and very much pointed. It is also characterized by almost entire absence of facial angle, there being a nearly unbroken line of descent from the forehead to the nose. The foot, also, is of greater comparative length, being about one-sixth the length of the body, while in the brown bear it is only one-tenth. The sole is covered with a thick fur, which enables the animal to tread firmly upon the ice. The claws are slightly curved, though not very long. They are quite black, so that they stand out in strong contrast with the fur surrounding them.

The polar bear is necessarily carnivorous, from the circumstances under which it exists, vegetable food being absent from its icy haunts; however, when captured and brought to warmer latitudes, it will subsist on a vegetable diet. It lives on fish and seals, and is said to occasionally capture a walrus. Its movements are remarkably quick. One was observed to dive from a block of ice and capture a passing salmon. Its mode of capturing the seal evidences much sagacity. Observing the position of the basking seal, it dives into the water and swims in that direction beneath the surface, occasionally sticking out its nose to "catch a breath." Proceeding thus, it rises at length close to the seal, which, cut off from the water, falls an easy prey, escape over the ice being impossible, on account of the swifter movements of the bear.