WHITE OR POLAR BEAR. 55 



able to subsist for so great a length of time without 

 food, there is a vulgar but erroneous notion, that they 

 live by sucking their paws. Another notion, equally 

 prevalent, and equally false, is, that their young ones, 

 when first produced, are rude and shapeless masses, and 

 that they are licked by their parents into form. Bears 

 are strong and powerful animals. When attacked, they 

 either strike their assailant with their paw, or endeavour 

 to suffocate him by seizing and hugging him to their 

 breast 



White or Polar Bear. The natural temper and dis- 

 position of these animals is infinitely more savage than 

 those of the black bear. They have frequently been 

 known even to attack mankind ; but their usual food con- 

 sists of seals and fish. They bring forth their young 

 ones in the depth of winter, and sometimes even upon 

 the ice. Their howling, in the frozen and inhospitable 

 regions of the north is heard to vast distances, and, in 

 the midst of darkness and horror, fills the hearer with the 

 most dreadful sensations of alarm. So expert are they 

 in swimming, that, in the summer-time, they occasionally 

 pass from one ice-island to another, though several 

 leagues asunder. When these animals are kept for the 

 purpose of exhibition, it is necessary to have their 

 bodies constantly wetted. The keepers of wild-beasts 

 generally call them Sea-Lions. They are natives of 

 all the sea-coasts within the Arctic circle ; and are par- 

 ticularly numerous in Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Nova 

 Zembla. 



The length of the Polar Bear is generally from nine 

 to twelve feet. The head, neck, and body, are, in pro- 

 portion, much longer than those of the black bear. The 



