POLAR BEAR.—Thalarctos maritimus. 
The shape of the head is rather remarkable, for whereas in the Brown and other 
Bears the muzzle is separated from the forehead by a well-marked depression, in the Polar 
Bear the line from the forehead to the nose is almost continuous. The foot of the 
Nennook is of surprising comparative length, for it is equivalent in length to one-sixth 
of the entire length of the body, whereas in the Brown Bear it is but one-tenth of that 
measurement. The sole of the foot is covered with a thick coating of warm fur, which is 
in all probability intended for the double purpose of protecting the extremities from the 
intense cold of the substance which it is formed to traverse, and of enabling the creature 
to tread firmly on the hard and slippery ice. 
From these and other peculiarities of form it is now acknowledged as a separate 
species of Bear, and even removed into a different genus by many naturalists, although 
the earlier writers on this subject supposed that it was merely a permanent variety of the 
Brown Bear, which had obtained a white coat by constant exposure to the terrible cold 
of these wintry regions, and whose form had been slightly modified by the ever-repeated 
habits of its strange life. 
The skeleton which is here presented to the reader is that of the Polar Bear, and has 
been selected because it affords an excellent example of the peculiar bony formation 
around which the body of the Bear is built, and at the same time exhibits some of the 
characteristics which distinguish the Polar from the other Bears. The reader will 
especially notice the length of the neck, the peculiar flatness of the skull, and the 
very great comparative length of the feet. 
Although so powerful an animal, and furnished by nature with such dreadful arms of 
