Like all Bears, the Polar Bear has poor eyesight, and relies mainly on its nose for scouting. Its sense of smell is very keen, and it can readily detect the presence of concealed food on land and of fish in a harbor. It is very fond of pork, especially fat pork; and Felix Riesenberg, who had a hunting camp on the shores of Virgo Haven, opposite the old Andree base, thus relates how the odor of roast ham once brought an inquisitive Bruin to his death:
"Morton, who was the official chef, busied himself in an attempt to roast some pieces of ham over the glowing coals, while Paul and I sat impatiently by, awaiting the completion of the dainty morsels and ready to sandwich them between pieces of hardtack. On the stove we had a pot of coffee steaming merrily. At the conclusion of this modest refreshment we proposed to crawl into our bags.
"The noise of sharp claws against a roof of frozen tar-paper is peculiar, and the thud of a heavy body launched from nowhere and scratching its way over your lonely housetop away up in the Arctic regions is, to say the least, diverting. These sounds rasped upon us just as we were about to draw our toes up to the fire for a smoke, and the thrill sent through our little party was electric. 'A Bear! A Bear!' we all shouted together, grabbing our rifles and rushing blindly out into the night. I sent two shots after a big white fellow in full retreat over the snow.
"The bear had carefully nosed his way up on top of the slanting roof of the lean-to, and on up to the smoking chimney whence came the appetizing odor of roast ham. Evidently a whiff of smoke had caused him to lose his balance, and he slid backward, scratching with all his might to hold his footing.
"Roast ham proving a tempting bait for Bear, we kept our surplus pork trimming sizzling in the stove for many days."
At length the Bear came back, and this time received his quietus from the rifles of the party.
The flesh of the Polar Bear is welcome food for the hunter; its teeth and claws are used as ornaments; its fat furnishes the Bear's grease of commerce; and its pelt serves as material for garments for the Eskimos and is mounted in the form of robes and rugs. A fine specimen of the latter has been known to fetch $1,000 in New York.
Both Carl Hagenbeck and J.W. Bostock, the well-known animal trainers, agree that the Polar Bear is harder to train than any other kind of Bear. The former says that "at certain seasons of the year they become extraordinarily restless and intractable," and the latter, that "even in cold and frosty weather, a Polar Bear, when being trained. will get completely played out long before any ordinary Bear would consider he had begun."
J. Alden Loring, who studied the antics of two Polar Bears which for ten years were exhibited in the New York Zoological Park, bears testimony to the genuinely playful disposition of the animals. They would amuse themselves for hours with an airtight beer-keg. which they would force under the water in their swimming tank when it came to the surface, much as a child would keep a rubber ball bouncing on the sidewalk; they engaged in bona-fide wrestling bouts; and one was a very good juggler with a piece of bone, which he would throw up into the air with evident enjoyment.
