and taught those accomplishments which make
him, without contradiction, a most entertaining
member of society. To be strictly just, however,
we must present the Bear in his rougher
mood; and nowhere do we find him "coming it so
strong" as in the accounts which are given of him
by the early Arctic navigators, who, by the way,
like all sailors, have a great propensity to give
him the designation, if not the propensities, of
the fair sex. Some of the most graphic of these
are related in the Navigation of William Barents,
made in anno 1595, behind Norway, Muscovia,
and Tartaria, the writer of which was Gerat de
Veer. "The sixt of September, some of our
men went on shoare upon the firm land to seeke
for stones, which are a kind of diamond, whereof
there are many also in States Iland; and while
they were seeking the stones, two of our men
lying together in one place, a great leane white
Beare came suddenly stealing out, and caught
one of them suddenly faste by the necke, who,
not knowing what it was that tooke him by the
necke, cryed out and sayd, 'Who is that that
pulls me so by the necke?' Wherwith the other
that lay not farre from him lifted up his head
to see who it was, and perceiving it to be a
monstrous Beare, cryed out and sayd, 'Oh,
mate! it is a Beare!' and therwith presently
rose up and ranne away. The Beare, at the
first falling upon the man, bit his head in
sunder, and suckt out his blood, wherwith the
rest of the men that were on the land, being
about twentie in number, ranne presently thither,
either to recover the man or else to drive the
Beare from the dead body; and having charged
their Pieces and bent their Pikes, set upon her,
that was still devouring the man, but perceiving
them to come towards her, fiercely and cruelly
ranne at them, and got another of them out
from the Companie, which she tore in pieces,
wherwith all the rest ranne away. We
perceiving out of our Ship and Pinasse, that our
men ranne to the Sea-side to save themselves,
with all speed entered into our Boates, and
rowed as fast as we could to the shoare to
relieve our men. Where being on Land, we
beheld the cruell spectacle of our two dead men,
that had beene so cruelly killed and torn to
pieces by the Beare, wee seeing that, incouraged
our men to goe backe againe with us, and with
Pieces, Curtelasses, and Halfe-pikes, to set
upon the Beare, but they would not all agree
therunto: some of them saying, our men are
already dead, and we shall get the Beare well
enough though we expose not ourselves into so
open danger; if wee might save our fellowes
lives, then would wee make haste, but nowe wee
need not make such speed, but take her at an
advantage, with most securitie for ourselves,
for we have to doe with a cruell, fierce, and
ravenous Beast. Wherupon three of our men
went forward, the Beare still devouring her
prey, not even fearing the number of our men,
and yet they were thirtie at the least. The
three that went forward in that sort, were
Cornelius Jackson, Master of William Barents'
ship, William Gysen, Pylot of the Pinasse, and
Hans van Rufler, William Barents' purser;
and after that the sayd Master and Pylot had
shot three times and mist, the Purser stepping
somewhat further forward, and seeing the Beare
to be within length of a shot, presently levelled
his Piece, and discharging it at the Beare, shot
her into the head betweene both the eyes, and
yet she held the man still fast by the necke, and
lifted up her head with the man in her mouth,
but she began somewhat to stagger, wherwith
the Purser and a Scottish-man drew out their
Curtelasses, and strooke at her so hard that
their Curtelasses burst, and yet she would not
leave the man; at last William Geysen went to
them, and with all his might strooke the Beare
upon the snout with his Piece, at which time
the Beare fell to the ground, making a great
noyse, and William Geysen leaping upon her cut
her throat. The seventh of September we
buried the dead bodies of our men in the State
Iland, and having flayed the Beare, conveyed the
skinne to Amsterdam."

In a chapter on the auxiliary verbs, Tristram
Shandy asks: "If I should see a white bear,
what should I say?" What Barents' sailors
did, when they saw a white bear, on their
voyage northward, to the kingdoms of Cathaia
and China, in the year 1596, when in latitude
74° 30' N., was as follows: "The twelfth of
June, in the morning, we saw a white Beare,
which we rowed after with our Boate, thinking
to cast a rope about her necke; but when we
were neare her she was so great that we durst
not doe it, but rowed back again to our Ship,
to fetch more men and our Armes, and so made
to her again with Muskets, Harquebusses,
Halberts, and Hatchets, Johne Cornelison's men
comming also with their Boate to helpe us; and
so being well furnished of men and weapons,
we rowed with both our Boates unto the Beare,
and fought with her while foure Glasses were
runne out, for our weapons could doe her little
hurt; and amongst the rest of the blowes
that we gave her, one of our men strooke her
into the backe with an Axe, which stuck fast
in her backe, and yet she swamme away with it,
but we rowed after her, and at last we cut her
head in sunder with an Axe, wherwith she
dyed; and then we brought her into John
Cornelison's ship, where we flayed her, and found
her skin to be twelve foot long; which done, we
eate some of her flesh; but we brookt it not
well. This Iland we called the Beare-iland."
In a still higher latitude (79º 30') they killed a
second she bear, thirteen feet long. In another
place, a party of eight men (they always had
numbers in their favour) came suddenly upon
two Bears, when they were without weapons,
"wherupon the Beares rose up upon their
hinder feet to see us (for they can smell further
than they can see); and for that they smelt us,
therefore they rose upright and came towards
us, wherwith we were not a little abashed,
in such sort that we had little lust to laugh,
and in all haste went to our Boates again,
still looking behind us, to see if they
followed us." The adventures of these jolly tars,