Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/62

 any sort of a wild stranger. So if Eiseeyou was astonished, he may also have surprised the Czar.

The polar bear, whom I call the Czar of the Frozen North, is in a class quite by himself. He is not nearly as large as his cousin the Kadiak bear, but that huge beast inhabits a comparatively small area and is little known, while the white Czar ranges along the shores of the Arctic sea round the entire world. His scientific name, Thalarctos Maritimus, means Bear of the Sea.

He is also called the water bear. By this you will know that he is very much at home in the water. In fact cold baths are his specialty. With the thermometer registering twenty below zero, this hardy fellow will plunge into the Arctic sea and swim for hours among the floating ice cakes. He also dives with great ease, but rarely goes further than a day's journey inland.

His home is on the icefloe and he travels with it, going northward in the summer and coming back southward in the winter.

Like the walrus, the seal, the narwal, and some of the foxes, he follows the ice-