﻿218 NORTHERN BROWN BEAR. Jui.t, 



by the lad as he was rushing at him. The boy found 

 his father torn limb from limb, and mostly eaten, 

 except the head, which remained entire. The bear, 

 whose carcass was seen by Mr. Bell, was a brown 

 one, and of great size. Fragments of the snare 

 remained about his neck and leg. 



These brown bears are very powerful ; and the same 

 gentleman who told the above story informed me 

 that on the Porcupine River, to the west of the Peel, 

 he saw the foot-marks of a large one which having 

 seized a moose-deer in the river, had dragged it about 

 a quarter of a mile along the sandy banks, and after- 

 wards devoured it all, but part of the hind quarters. 

 The bones were crushed and broken by the animal's 

 teeth, and, from their size and hardness, Mr. Bell 

 judged the moose to have been upwards of a year old, 

 when it would weigh as much as an ox of the same 

 age. The species of these northern brown bears is 

 as yet undetermined. They greatly resemble the 

 Ursus arctos of the old continent, if they are not 

 actually the same ; and are stronger and more car- 

 nivorous than the black bears ( Ursus americaniis)^ 

 which also frequent the Mackenzie. The grisly 

 bears ( Ursus ferox) reach the same latitudes, but 

 do not generally descend from the mountains. 



After a halt of little more than two hours with 

 Mr. M'Beath, we resumed our voyage down the 

 river, and, rowing until supper-thne, the crews 



