ARCTIC ADVENTURES

Evening Star, Issue 19003, 27 July 1925, Page 12

ARCTIC ADVENTURES

MY FIRST WHITER POLAR BEAR [By Henry Ette, iu the ‘ Weekly Scotsman.’] The midnight sun on the 80th degree N.L. had, during four long summer months, incessantly been shining on ice, sea, icebergs, green fields, eternally snowclnd iron mountains, and streaming bine salmon rivers with a fine rosy tingo. At the cud of August he begins to grow tired, and approaches tho horizon; then it is time for tho polar bear, tho largest beast of prey, and absolute monarch of tho Arctic region, to throw ins yellow summer coat, soiled by seal blood, and put on his dazzling white winter cloak and go southwards. The higher the midnight sun tho more to the north goes tho bear; tho lower the midnight sun, the more to tho south. It is difficult to find food in the pitch-dark polar night, where tho great stillness is broken only by the howling of the storm mingled with high, shrill, ghastly tones of the white wolves, while stones crack like glass in the paralysing cold of 40deg Reainur. The seals have made off to the coasts—they prefer the neighborhood of water —therefore the bear must take tho same way. One day in late autumn a heavy bear of a yellowish white is moving slowly across the eiidless Arctic wastes, spotted with pointed screwings, and hero and there small icebergs. _ Now and then he stops at the top of a screwing, turning his broad, triangular head with the black pointed nozzle towards the highest top of tho nearest mountain; and when, like the seaman, ho has taken a bearing, ho stalks on again with his long, straddling forelegs. HOPE TO THE HUNGRY. It is only the teeming she-bears which make themselves a lair, under a thick field of snow sheltered by the mountains, and they will not appear till next spring, with their two newly-born snowy-white ones. The she-bcar is not to bo trifled with. Tho he-bears continue their wanderings through tlio long polar night in an incessant struggle for food. _ Their inch-thick blubber covering will- last till Christmas time, but when it is consumed, and they walk about with only a slop of waiter in their slunken hollies, the death hunger is at the door. “Hooray! A depot!” Tho last hope of rescue provided for a couple of exhausted men half-dead from cold and starvation. Aivay with the stones. They are flung aside by the heavy right paw, strong enough with one single blow to make a big walrus drop fainting. A barrel 1 The bear breaks the bottom by a heavy clutch. Alas! dry biscuits only! What is that to an old hungry bear? It is blubber, liver, blood, and, lastly, flesh he claims. “Bub what is this?” A breeze of air carries an almost imperceptible, singular smell, andquick as lightning the bear throws his nozzle with the perfectly phenomena! sense of smell in that direction. “ W r hat is it? Burnt blubber and feathers!” And on he trots, mile after mile, led by the singular smell, till at last lie stops in front of a little hut. In tons of meat of seal and walrus tho boar is able in a trice to find a bit of blubber not bigger than a matchbox. If not able to find anything eatable ho is instantly inclined to thru everything upside down and break all bo can get at with his heavy right paw. A FORAGING PACK.

At the cast coast of Greenland, along the 1,500 miles of mainpack, in and out of tho fjords, there goes a passage every spring and autumn of at least 500 animals. Once three bears forced an entrance into the houso of the settlement manager, where they were shot in the kitchen; and recently a Danish hunter was killed in the immense stillness by a furious hc-bear, : - . .. Even the most skilful sharpshooter is helpless in the eternal polardarkness, 1 where he is barely able to; sec the groove and blocksight of his own rifle; and the bear-hunter who wants to get the animals from windward bad better trail a sealskin with the blubber on a few miles out in the coast. Should the night wanderer meet such a trail he will instantly give up his former course. After him follow a pack of howling w'hite wolves, and on their heels some white and blue foxes. For all the larger and smaller beasts of prey in tho Arctic solitude know very well that when the rich are feasting there will be some crumbs left for tho poor. BAITING A TRAP.

On my expedition to Spitsbergen's North-eastland, 80dog N.L, 1902-03, 1 baa urouglit some wolf traps, and now [ wanted to try them on the grown-up he-bears. My second harpooner and 1 myself cocked the trap, keeping our finders at a safe distance. Then we placed a piece of blubber on the plate and put it down about 50yds from the hut, fastened to a long iron chain with an anchor. The first to go into tho trap was a great seagull, the biggest bird of the Arctic. Gracefully ho alighted on his outspread greyish-brown wines and pecked at the blubber. The

trap clapped, and the seagull was clipped in two. Then f decided not to use the trap till the sun had tlpeared under the horizon and the gnus had gone southwards. Clad In Eskimo costume, my Larson sea rifle between my knees, 1 kept watch at a loophole during the night. Tho sun was still above the horizon for a few hours in tho day. The first wduter bear escaped from me. A calm, overcast, pitch-dark night, at 1 o’clock I heard an angry hissing and growding, and, rifle in hand, I sprang onfc; but the bear had already disappeared, leaving four claw’s and some white hairs in the trap. I swore a heavy oath that next time he . should be mine, be it even my turn ■ to lose some hairs and claws. i I Four long, tedious nights I kept my watch at the loophole facing the sea, where the ice now was lying thick and right on to the shore; but, however much of walrus blubber, seal flesh, and seagull feather I burnt in tho oven—dishes that would be sure to tickle tbo nose of a hungry polar bear—no bear appeared. The wind did not blow' the right way. , ' THE FORM IN THE DARK. I The fifth night the wind carried the smoke out over the sea. I had just thrown a new portion of blubber in tho oven, and stood again on tho look-out in skin coat and boots made of blad-der-nose skin, when 1 noticed some- . thing big, heavy, and clumsy steering right tow’ards the hut. So dark was it 1 could barely see his rocking trot to- j wards the blubber in the trap. | My heart was throbbing so that I thought it would burst. I almost fancied that my four men in tho berths inside might hear its throbbing. Cautiously 1 closed the loophole so that only my right eye was upon the bear, while the other eyo and tho rest of my body were inside the boards. About ffijyds from the hut ho stopped, put his forelegs wide apart, and, stretching his neck and rocking the front part of his body, he sniffed eagerly. Blubber and man’s flesh!

Determined, but slowly, he approached the bait. I saw him life his | paw and heard the clicking of tho trap, i and, firmly grasping my rifle, I reached - the bear in a few jumps. He stood on lids hind legs, and, hissing with fury, ! he swung the trap with iron chain and anchor in his right paw. I placed my rifle against him and pulled tho trigger. A glimpse I A report! A roar! And | in a jiffy I was back in the house bangmg the door behind mo and looking I eagerly through the loophole. Tho 'hear was lying quite still—dead. The i pointed steel bullet had gone right through tho breast and out through the back, and had killed him on tho spot. I got the fleece without losing j cither hair or nails. He measured al- | most four metres from nozzle to tho claws of his hind legs.