POLAR BEARS VERSUS SEALERS
Part of the crew of a scaling vessel landed from their ship and attacked a rookery of fur-bearing seals, and killed a large number of them. Then the men fell to skinning the catch. They had been at this work for sometime when suddenly the leader gave a cry of alarm and the others, on looking up from their work, beheld three polar bears ploughling through a small snow field and coming directly towards them.
The man were only armed with clubs so there was nothing for them to do but to make a hasty retreat to their boat. The polar bears must have scented the slaughter, for when the came up to the bodies of the seals they went no further but began to feed, growling from time to time as if to warn the men to keep away.
The leader of the boat's crew would not consent to give up his whole catch so easily, so he had the skiff rowed quickly to the ship and returned armed with a rifle. The leader had the boat rowed close up to a rocky projection upon which the largest bear stood; then steadying himself he fired at close range. The shot passed through the fleshy part of the throat without doing the bear much harm except stinging it. The leader saw that the bear would charge and he yelled to his rowers to "back water." The men were slow in obeying, and furthermore a stray eddy swung the boat close to the rock, and disaster was inevitable. The bear jumped from its higher vantage ground into the boat and its great weight swamped it in an instant. The leader was instantly killed by a terrific blow on the head and three of the rowers, having steady sea boots on, went down to the bottom like stones. Meanwhile the smash up had been sighted from the ship and a second boat put out at once and picked up four of the men who had managed to keep afloat. The bear swam to shore again and prepared to beat off any of its enemies that attempted to land, for its wound had roused it to fury. Curiously enough only one of the three bears took part in the fighting, for had they all come to the attack they could have held off the entire ship's crew.
The second boat contained the captain of the ship and he was more cautions. He fired at the bear and the shot passed through its heart and lungs. The great creature flung up its head and gave forth one peculiar sound, between a cough and a sob, and rolled over on its back dead. The other two bears, seeing their mate slain, then hastened away and allowed the men to land and gather up their seal "pelts."
It is not an uncommon thing for boat parties to be attacked in this way. The polar bear has an excellent sense of smell, and you must remember that the scent of flesh travels a long way in those icy regions.
