File:Animal products; (1877) (14590176588).jpg

Identifier: animalproducts00simm (find matches)
Title: Animal products;
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Simmonds, Peter Lund, 1814-1897. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Animal products. (from old catalog) Domestic animals. (from old catalog)
Publisher: New York, Pub. by Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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(U. ferox), and the grizzly bear (U. horribUis)ordinarily dwells among the Rocky Mountains. The latter islarge, strong and ferocious. They are sometimes nine or tenfeet long, and are reported to attain a weight exceeding 800pounds. From the black, and indeed from all, the nativesderive food ; they also cut the summer hides into cords. Theclaws of grizzly and barren-ground bears are much prizedfor necklaces and coronets by the Indians, as a proof of theirprowess. The Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus, Linn.) is perhaps the onlyspecies common to both continents, and may be considered as asea animal, inhabiting the ice floating between them. They come THE POLAR BEAR. 251 down on the ice drifted round Cape Farewell in the current fromthe east coast, and some are taken on the ice round Upernavick,in the far north. In Capt. Halls Life with the Esquimaux, among other anec-dotes given of the ingenuity of the polar bear, is one by whichhe kills a walrus when basking in the sun on the rocks. If this
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POLAR BEAR KILLING WALRUS. happens to be near the base of a cliff, the bear mounts the cliffand throws down upon the animals head a large rock, cal-culating the distance and the curve with astonishing accuracy,and thus crushing the thick, bullet-proof skull. If the walrus isnot instantly killed—simply stunned—the bear rushes down to it,seizes the rock, and hammers away at the head till the skull isbroken. 252 THE BROWN BEAR. The bear-skin is of the greatest value to the Arctic tribes. Theydress it by pinning it down on the snow and leaving it to freeze,after which the fat is scraped off. It is then hung up to dryin the intense frost, and with a little scraping it becomesperfectly supple, both skin and hair being beautifully white.The Greenland Company get from forty to sixty white bear-skinsannually. The flesh is eaten by the Esquimaux and the Danes in Green-land, and when young, and cooked after the manner of beefsteaks, is by no means to be despised, although rather insipid.The

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