THE POLAR BEAR. 331 



in question. It is said, however, that the liver ought to be avoided as an article of diet, as it 

 is apt to cause painful and even dangerous symptoms to those who have partaken of it. Yet 

 the liver of the American Black Bear is said to be a peculiar luxury when dressed on skewers, 

 kabob fashion, with alternate slices of fat. 



The Polar Bear is emphatically a marine animal, though not so in the sense of a whale, or 

 like forms. The aspect of the White Bear is unmistakable. 



The Spectacled Bear ( Ursus ornatus} is the only species found in South America, where it 

 ranges over the Cordilleras. It is black, with the exception of two semicircular yellow marks 

 above the eyes, which suggest the trivial name. 



IT will be observed, after the perusal of the foregoing pages, that the Bears are found in 

 almost every part of the world, with two notable exceptions, viz., Africa and Australia. With 

 regard to the latter of these countries, it may be remembered that the entire creation, whether 

 animal or vegetable, is of so strange a nature that it cannot be subjected to the rules which 

 govern the rest of the world. There is, it is true, a tree-climbing creature in Australia, of a 

 somewhat clumsy and ursine aspect, which is popularly called the Australian Bear, but which 

 is in reality no Bear at all, but a member of the curious family of the Macropidfe, which con- 

 tains the kangaroos, bandicoots, and opossums, and will be shortly described in its proper 

 place under the title of the Kaola. With regard to the African continent, the existence or 

 non-existence of Bears is by no means decided. 



Many of the ancient historians make constant mention of African Bears. Juvenal, for 

 instance, speaks of Numidian Bears, Virgil and Martial of Libyan Bears, while it is recorded 

 in the annals of the Roman empire, that in the year B. c. 61, a hundred Numidian Bears were 

 exhibited in the circus, each Bear led by a negro-hunter. None, however, of the later African 

 travellers have clearly seen Bears in that country, and it is certain that from the days of Pliny 

 up to the present time no true Bears have been found in Africa. Still, it is very possible that 

 these animals may be yet discovered in that vast continent ; for there seems to be no reason 

 why Bears should be unable to exist in some parts of so large a country, although they might 

 not be able to h'nd subsistence in those portions which have already been investigated. 



