Polar Bear 105 



rather than maritimi/s, but this proposed change has not met with a favour- 

 able reception among naturalists. 



Whatever differences of opinion may obtain among zoologists as to the 

 propriety of regarding Ursi/s arctits as a circumpolar species, there is 

 perfect unanimity on this point in the case of the polar or white bear, 

 which has hitherto not even been divided into local races. Its range thus 

 includes the Arctic shores of the continents of both the eastern and 

 western hemispheres, as well as most, or all, of the islands of the Polar 

 Ocean. Bears are, however, stated to be more numerous on the islands 

 where the ice remains unmelted throui^hout the vear than in those where 

 it disappears in summer, as is the case on the south-western coasts of 

 Novaia Zemlya and Spitzbergen. And in many districts where they were 

 formerly abundant their numbers have been so reduced that they are now 

 comparatively rare. This is the case in Labrador, from the southern part 

 of which the white bear appears to have been totally exterminated. 

 There is some reason to believe that in the litteenth centurv the species 

 inhabited Newfoundland ; and it has even been suggested that its southern 

 range extended as far as Maine, where bones from the old shell-mounds 

 have been assigned to this species. How far south the range of this 

 animal extends along the Scandinavian coasts is very difficult to ascertain. 



Of course the creamy white coat from which this species derives one of 

 its popular titles serves at once to distinguish it broadlv trom all its 

 kindred, but a brief reference to some of its other peculiarities seems 

 advisable. In many books on natural history it is stated that the present 

 species ditfers from all other bears by the relatively small size of its head. 

 A more exact description would state that the skull is distinguished by 

 the low elevation of the portion containing the brain and the consequent 

 straightness of its profile. That it is incorrect to describe the skull as small 

 is manifest from the measurements of bears' skulls given in the third 

 edition of Mr. Rowland Ward's Records of Great Game, where the present 



