Maternal Affection


Whilst a ship on a voyage of discovery to the North Pole was locked in the

ice, one morning the man at the masthead reported that three bears were

making their way towards the ship. They had, no doubt, been invited by the

scent of some blubber of a sea-horse which the crew was burning on the ice

at the time of their approach. They proved to be a she bear and her two

cubs; but the cubs were nearly as large as the dam. They ran eager
y to

the fire, and drew out part of the flesh that remained unconsumed, and ate

it voraciously. The crew threw great lumps of the flesh which they had

still left upon the ice, which the old bear fetched away singly, laying

every lump before the cubs as she brought it, and dividing it, gave each a

share, reserving but a small portion to herself. As she was fetching away

the last piece, they shot both the cubs dead, and wounded the dam, but not

mortally. It would have drawn tears of pity from any but the most

unfeeling to have marked the affectionate concern of this poor animal in

the dying moments of her expiring young. Though sorely wounded, she

crawled to the place where they lay, carrying a lump of flesh she had just

fetched away, tore it in pieces, and laid it down before them; when she

saw that they refused to eat, she laid her paws first upon one, then upon

the other, and endeavoured to raise them up, making at the same time the

most pitiable moans. Finding she could not stir them, she went off, and

when she had got at some distance, looked back and moaned; and that not

availing to entice them away, she returned, and smelling round them, began

to lick their wounds. She went off a second time, and having crawled a few

paces, looked again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. But her

cubs not rising to follow her, she returned, and with signs of

inexpressible fondness went round them, pawing them successively. Finding

at last that they were cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards the

ship, and growled a curse upon the destroyers, which they returned with a

volley of musket-balls. She fell between her cubs, and died licking their

wounds.



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