As the Polar Bear is able to obtain food all through the Arctic winter, there is not the same necessity, as in the case of the vegetable-eating Bears, for hibernating. In fact, the males and young females roam about through the whole winter, and only the pregnant females retire for the season. These--according to the Eskimo account, quoted by Captain Lyon--are very fat at the commencement of winter, and on the first fall of snow they lie down and allow themselves to be covered, or else dig a cave in a drift, and then go to sleep until the spring, when the cubs are born. By this time the animal’s heat has melted the snow for a considerable distance, so that there is plenty of room for the young ones, who tumble about at their ease, and get fat at the expense of their parent, who, after her long abstinence, becomes gradually very thin and weak. The whole family leave their abode of snow when the sun is strong enough to partially melt its roof. The Eskimo have the same theory about the hibernating Polar Bears that the Northern Indians hold with regard to the Brown Bear, namely, that it has no evacuations during the winter, “stopping up all the natural passages with moss, grass, or earth.” The Polar Bear is regularly hunted with Dogs by the Eskimo. The following extract gives an account of their mode of procedure:--“Let us suppose a Bear scented out at the base of an iceberg. The Eskimo examines the track with sagacious care, to determine its age and direction, and the speed with which the animal was moving when he passed along. The Dogs are set upon the trail, and the hunter courses over the ice at their side in silence. As he turns the angle of the berg his game is in view before him, stalking, probably, along with quiet march, sometimes snuffing the air suspiciously, but making, nevertheless, for a nest of broken hummocks. The Dogs spring forward, opening a wild, wolfish yell, the driver shrieking ‘Nannook! nannook!’ and all straining every nerve in pursuit.” [Illustration: POLAR BEARS.] “The Bear rises on his haunches, inspects his pursuers, and starts off at full speed. The hunter, as he runs, leaning over his sledge, seizes the traces of a couple of his Dogs, and liberates them from their burthen. It is the work of a minute, for the motion is not checked, and the remaining Dogs rush on with apparent ease. “Now, pressed more severely, the Bear makes for an iceberg, and stands at bay, while his two foremost pursuers halt at a short distance and await the arrival of the hunter. At this moment the whole pack are liberated; the hunter grasps his lance, and, tumbling through the snow and ice, prepares for the encounter. “If there be two hunters, the Bear is killed easily; for one makes a feint of thrusting the spear at the right side, and, as the animal turns with his arms towards the threatened attack, the left is unprotected and receives the death-wound.