Fauna Boredli-Ainericdm* 355 



Godman has given a detailed and interesting account of their manners, 

 particularly of one which was domesticated by Mr. Titian Peale. He men- 

 tions that they are most active early in the morning, at mid-day, and in the 

 evening, and that they are well known in the country to have the custom 

 of coming daily to the surface exactly at noon. They may then be taken 

 alive by thrusting a spade beneath them, and throwing them on the sur- 

 face ; but can scarcely be caught at any other period of the day. The cap- 

 tive one in the possession of Mr. Peale ate considerable quantities of fresh 

 meat, either cooked or raw, drank freely, and was remarkably lively and 

 playful, following the hand of its feeder by the scent, burrowing for a 

 short distance in the loose earth, and, after making a small circle, returning 

 for more food. When engaged in eating he employed his flexible snout 

 in a singular manner to thrust the food into his mouth, doubling it so as to 

 force it directly backwards." (p. 12.) 



As we are in possession of various excellent accounts of the forms, man- 

 ners, and habits of the American bears, it would be superfluous to extract 

 any of the author's observations upon them, they pnncipally confirming 

 the information previously derived from Hearne, Lewis and Clarke, &c., 

 except to notice that, according to the statements of Dr. Richardson, the 

 carnivorous propensity of the bears of America is diametrically opposite to 

 that of those of Europe, the Brown Bear in the former country living 

 more on flesh than the black species. This observation principally relates 

 to a brown variety, much resembling the Norway Bear, which inhabits the 

 Barren Grounds, and has, by Hearne and others, been confounded with the 

 Grisly Bear ( C/^'rsus ferox). The following short anecdote presents us with 

 a characteristic trait of the simplicity of some of the natives of these re- 

 gions : — " Keskarrah, an old Indian, was seated at the door of his tent, 

 pitched by a small stream, not far from Fort Enterprize, when a large bear 

 came to the opposite bank, and remained for some time, apparently survey- 

 ing him. Keskarrah considering himself to be in great danger, and having, 

 no one to assist him but his aged wife, made a speech to the following 

 effect : — * O bear ! I never did you any harm ; I have always had the 

 highest respect for you and your relations, and never killed any of them 

 except through necessity. Go away, good bear, and let me alone, and I 

 promise not to molest you.' The bear walked off, and the old man, fancy- 

 ing that he owed his safety to his eloquence, favoured us on his arrival at 

 the fort with his speech at length." (p. 22.) 



Dr. Richardson appears rather more than to doubt the specific identity 

 of any animals, however closely they may resemble, which, as inhabitants 

 of the great continents of the world, are separated by intervening oceans ; 

 hence, with Mr. Sabine, he considers the American Badger (ilf eles labra- 

 doria Sabine) and the Wolverene (Gulo luscus Sabine), as well as the 

 Canadian lynx, and the whole tribe of wolves, dogs, foxes, marmots, elks, 

 reindeer, &c., as specifically distinct from their European representatives, 

 although their formation and consequent habits as nearly approximate as 

 is possible, allowing for the natural diflerences of climate and food, which 

 exist in their locaUties. However great are the authorities for this opinion, 

 we cannot hastily adopt it. When we consider how completely not only 

 the form and colour, but even the osteology and relative proportions of the 

 viscera, are altered in our domestic animals, new races with marked pecu- 

 liarities daily arising before our observation, we cannot believe but that the 

 same agents, over which man possesses a certain power to produce regular 

 changes in animal structure to contribute to his convenience, are ever active 

 under the control of Nature herself. To make ourselves more distinctly 

 understood, we might state that the same plastic and compensatory power, 

 existing throughout all nature, which enables man to produce gradually a 

 greyhound or a pug from the original type of the canine family, whatever it 

 may have been, would of itself act, more slowly, perhaps, but not less cer-; 



