Sometimes he takes
a fancy to have a man or two for his supper, as the following story
will prove.
A ship, returning from Nova Zembla, anchored near an island in the
Arctic Ocean, and two of the sailors went on land. They were standing
on the shore, talking to each other, when one of them cried out, "Stop
squeezing me!"
The other one looked around, and there was a white bear, very large
but very lean and scraggy, which had sneaked up behind the sailors,
and now had clutched one of them, whom he very speedily killed and
commenced to eat, while the other sailor ran away.
The whole crew of the ship now landed, and came after the bear,
endeavoring to drive him away from the body of their comrade; but as
they approached him, he quietly looked at them for a minute, and then
jumped right into the middle of the crowd, seized another man, and
killed him. Upon this, the crew ran away as fast as they could, and
scuttling into their boats, rowed away to the ship.
There were three of these sailors, however, who were too brave to
stay there and see a bear devouring the bodies of their friends, and
they returned to the island.
The bear did not move as they approached him, and they fired on him,
without seeming to injure him in the least.
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