CARNIVORA. 225 



islands, and thence spreading to the higher peaks 

 of the same latitudes, appears to extend on the 

 continent, through the forests, to the high lands of 

 Indo-China. 



In these regions, where the ratiocination and 

 legendary knowledge of the natives is apparently 

 a result of total disconnection with the races of man 

 on the north, the indigenous bears have caused 

 similar mystical impressions to arise with those 

 which we know to exist alike among the red men 

 of America, the yellow Mongole of Tartary, and the 

 ruddy Christian of Arctic Europe. Unquestionably 

 these notions are a consequence of human fear, 

 endeavouring to investigate the real and supposed 

 phenomena observable in bears, such as the power 

 of sitting, and for a few paces walking erect ; the 

 propensity of suffocating in their fore paws such of 

 their enemies as attack them ; the expression, of 

 their eyes, evincing thought and a settled purpose 

 more than malignity, but changing to a menacing 

 spectral appearance when the white nictitating mem- 

 brane is half drawn across the eye ball. Nor is 

 the voice without peculiar power of impression on 

 the imagination, sometimes resembling the ravings 

 uttered by human brutality in the last stage of 

 intoxication, proffering sounds which the ear would 

 fain attempt to catch, as if they might be connected 

 with articulate words in an unearthly language, 

 changing into growls deep and threatening, or form- 

 ing rapid nasal ejaculations, indicating an anxious 

 but direful intention. If to these we add occasional 



