ANEW O WHITE BEAR, FROM, BRITISH 
COLUMBIA. 
By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. 
URING the past twenty years, naturalists have been sur- 
prised by the discovery in northwestern America of new 
species of mammals so large and so conspicuous that it seemed 
strange they had so long remained unknown. The finding of 
the white mountain sheep, glacier bear, and several new forms 
of caribou and mountain sheep, have strongly emphasized the 
fact that the great Northwest contains many regions as yet 
wholly unexplored by naturalists and scientific sportsmen. 
Indeed, it may truthfully be said that in northern British 
Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Territory, zoological explorations 
have only fairly begun. There are vast regions, containing we 
know not what new animal life, which have been practically 
untouched by the zoologist. Excepting the territory drained by 
the Stickine River and a few of its smaller tributaries, northern 
British Columbia is, to scientific. collectors and students, a land 
almost unknown, and therefore it is an inviting field for 
exploration. 
In November, 1900, while making an examination of the skins 
of North American bears that were to be found in Victoria, 
British Columbia, the writer found a very strange specimen in 
the possession of Mr. J. Boskowitz, a dealer in raw furs. The 
skin was of a creamy-white color, and very small. Mr. Bos- 
kowitz reported that it had come to him from the Nass River 
country, and that he had previously received four or five similar 
skins from the same locality. 
Although this skin was of small size, and had been worn by 
an animal no larger than a grizzly cub one year old, its well- 
worn teeth indicated a fully adult animal. Believing that the 
specimen might really represent a new ursine form, it was pur- 
chased, and held for corroborative evidence. In view of the 
multiplicity of new species and sub-species of North American 
bears that have been brought out during the past ten years, it 
