The skins are imported into Britain, chiefly for covering coach-boxes. In Greenland the inhabitants use the flesh and fat as food; and of the skins they make seats, boots, shoes, and gloves; the tendinous parts they split into fibres for the purpose of sewing.[10] [10] Fab. _Faun. Groenland._ edit. 1780, p. 24. The food of the Polar bears consists chiefly of fish, of seals which they seize when sleeping, and the carcasses of whales, walrusses, &c. so often found floating in the northern seas. On land they prey on the rein-deers, young birds, and eggs; and sometimes lay hold of the Arctic fox, notwithstanding all his stratagems in order to escape. Some naturalists have maintained that the Polar bear chiefly delighted in human flesh; this, however, is expressly contradicted by Fabricius, who, from his long residence in Greenland, must be allowed to be unexceptionable authority. It will not prey on man, says he, unless pressed by hunger, and it deserves to be mentioned, that the Greenlanders feign themselves dead when they wish to avoid the pursuit. It cannot, however, be denied, that, when attacked, or hungry, they are extremely dangerous to man. Many well authenticated instances are to be met with of the courage with which they have attacked the crews of boats, or even of ships. The following is one of the many: “A few years since, the crew of a boat belonging to a ship in the whale fishery, shot at a bear at a short distance, and wounded it. The animal immediately set up the most dreadful yells, and ran along the ice towards the boat. Before it reached it, a second shot was fired, and hit it. This served to increase its fury. It presently swam to the boat; and in attempting to get on board, reached its fore foot upon the gunwale; but one of the crew having a hatchet, cut it off. The animal still however, continued to swim after them, till they arrived at the ship, and several shots were fired at it, which also took effect; but on reaching the ship it immediately ascended the deck; and the crew having fled into the shrouds, it was pursuing them thither, when a shot from one of them laid it dead upon the deck.” Vid. Bewick’s _Hist. Quadrup._ 6th edit. p. 296. The walrus is the most dangerous enemy the bear has to contend with, and his immense tusks often give him a decided superiority. What the bear, however, wants in strength, he supplies by cunning, as he takes huge fragments of ice in his paws, and, dashing them against the head of the walrus, attacks and kills him after he is stunned by these blows. The one and the other often fall in this desperate fray.[11] [11] Fabr. _loc. cit._