CONCERNING BEARS. 



291 



This bear seldom attacks man if unmolested. The pregnant females 

 hibernate, but the males and other females do not. The first scrapes 

 a hole into the snow, where, buried as it were, she passes the winter, 

 bringing forth her babies, generally two in number, during that time. 

 The mother will always die before leaving her cubs in clanger, and, if 

 they be killed first, she is said to make a most affecting display of grief. 

 The flesh of the polar bear is highly esteemed by the arctic voyagers 

 as an article of food. 



Fig. fl. Polar or White Bear (JJrsus maritimus) 



Scattered throughout Europe are the remains of extinct bears, usu- 

 ally found in caves, from which fact they are said to belong to the 

 cave-bear. They have been divided into two species, JJrsus sj^elceus 

 and Ursus prlscus. The former is larger than any living species. In 

 a recent number of the Popular Science Beview, Mr. A. Leith Adams, 

 M. B., F. R. S., makes an interesting attempt to establish the identity 

 of the grizzly and the Ursus spelceus. He thinks that the former was 

 at one time common to Europe, and that the latter were only larger 

 individuals of the same species. He was led to this conclusion from 

 observations on the brown bear of the Himalayas, in which species he 

 found that certain males occasionally grow much larger than the aver- 

 age, and that such are peculiarly addicted to living in caves, from 

 which they seldom wander except for a few hours daily. It seems, 

 also, that certain slight modifications of the skeleton occur in the 

 overgrown individuals. Reasoning from analogy, he concludes that, 

 when means of subsistence were abundant in Europe, it is likely that 

 a similar peculiarity of excessive growth in certain individuals also 

 characterized the grizzly species. This hypothesis, he thinks, suffi- 

 ciently accounts for the difference in size, while the cave-loving habits 

 of the larger individuals would explain the preservation of their re- 

 mains. The Ursus priscus he regards as identical with the brown 

 bear ( Ursus arctos). 



Regarding the distribution of bears, we have found the grizzly re- 



