According to Fabricius, their time of parturition is in the winter, and their number of young at a birth seldom exceeds two. At this period, if on land, they make large dens in the snow; but they frequently bring forth in some of those vast caverns, so often found in the huge masses of _packed_ ice. Their attachment to their offspring is remarkably great. When mortally wounded, they will take their little cubs under their paws, embrace, and bemoan them with their latest breath. Polar bears are equally at home by land and by sea, where they swim with great strength and agility; they also dive, but cannot remain long under water. As if impatient of rest, they are frequently seen passing from one island of ice to another, and are often met with at a great distance from land. They are frequently drifted into Iceland and Norway, where, from the extreme hunger they suffer in their passage thither, they make dreadful ravages among the cattle, but are soon dispatched by the inhabitants, who rise in a body as soon as they learn that one of them has approached their shores. The government of Iceland encourages the destruction of these animals, by paying a premium of ten dollars for every bear that is killed. That these animals are possessed of considerable sagacity is evident from the account we have given of their combats with the walrus, and may be farther elucidated by the following fact:--The Captain wounded one in the side, and immediately the animal, as if conscious of the styptic nature of snow, covered the wound with it, and made off. We did not perceive any blood in its tract. The sight of the bear is rather defective, but its senses of smelling and hearing are very acute, and compensate for any feebleness in the other. Some writers have affirmed that Polar bears lie in a state of torpor through the long winter night, and appear only with the return of the sun; but this is denied by Fabricius, who says, they are equally on the hunt summer and winter.[12] [12] _Tam brumali, quam aestivo tempore occurrit extra praedans._ Fab. _loc. cit._ The _Cervus tarandus_, or rein-deer, comes next in order. This useful and beautiful animal is found in every part of Spitzbergen. It has long, slender, branched horns, bending forwards, and palmated at the top, and broad palmated brow antlers.