485 



APPENDIX A. 



MAllCO POLO AND TOLAR BEARS (rage xi). 



A CURIOUS instanco of the confusion wliii;h sometimes results from tlie incorrect 

 itlontitication of an animal mentioned by an old author, occurs in the supposed 

 alhision to Polar bears by Marco Polo, whereon Baron Nordenskiiild (in his interesting 

 Voyage of the Vega) bases the curious deduction that the Polar boar was known to and 

 hunted by the subjects of Kaidu, governor and subsequently independent ruler of 

 Turkestan. The passage alluded to occurs in Book iii. chapter xliv. (Marsden's trans- 

 lation in Bohn's Antiquarian Library), and runs thus: "In these Northern distiicts 

 are found bears of a white colour and of prodigious size, being for the most part about 

 20 s])ans in lengtli. There are foxes also whose furs are entirely black, ivild a.ises in 

 great numbers, and certain small animals named 'rondes,' which have most delicate 

 furs, and by our peojile are called Zibelines or sables." 



The first step towards the complete mystification of the meaning of Marco Polo 

 seems to have been in the translation of the Italian ' palmo ' by the word ' span,' 

 which may be supposed tho equivalent for 10 inches; though in a note, Marsden 

 remarks that palmo is by some rendered ' a foot.' On this supposition of ' palmo ' 

 being a span, the bears in question would measure 16 feet 6 inches in length. 

 Marsden, in the note above referred to, introduces the term ' Polar bears,' with tho 

 remark that they grow to 13 feet in lengtli. Following this false scent. Baron 

 Nordenskiold attempts to meet tho palpable inconsistency of wild asses being found 

 in association with Polar bears, by the ingenious, but wholly hypothetical emendation 

 of Marco Polo's text, by substituting "reindeer" for wild asses. Baron Nordenskiold, 

 however, uses the term 'hand' in place of 'spans' for 'palmo,' and in this he is 

 undoubtedly correct, as, on the supposition that the palmo, or hand, is 4 inches, Marco 

 Polo's ' white bears' would measure 6 feet 8 inches, which is what Ursus Isabellinus 

 docs commonly measure. The 'ivhite bear,' so called, of Turkestan is, of course, not 

 the Polar bear, nor is it strictly speaking a ivhite bear, but the yellow bear of tlie 

 higher Himalayas, and not usually found much away from their vicinity. The ' wild 

 asses' of Marco Polo are, of course, the Kiangs or £qiias hemiunus, an animal 

 specially characteristic of the Tibetan plateau, and tlie suggestion that the 'reindeer' 

 was the animal alluded to is an untenable hypothesis. Baron Nordenskiold's words 

 are as follows: "Marco Polo also says, in his account of the country of tho peace- 

 loving nomad Tartar tribes living in the north, that there are to be found there wliite 

 bears, most of them twenty hands long, largo black foxes, wild asses (reindeer), and a 

 little animal called ' rondes,' from which we get the sable fur. As the Polar bear is 

 only to be found on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, these statements prove tliat in the 

 tbirteenth century the nortluunmost parts of Asia were inhabited or at least visited by 

 tunters " (Voyage of the Vega, Leslie's translation, vol. i. p. 141). 



