244 ORDER V. 



Pennant, on the authority of Condamine and 

 TJIloa, mentions a brown bear of the Peruvian 

 Andes ; but this may be the spectacled bear before 

 mentioned, or is a species still undescribed. 



Sub-genus THALARCTOS. Marine Bears. The 

 North Polar region is frequented by a species of 

 bear, which is sufficiently distinct from the fore- 

 going to be placed in a separate section : it is longer 

 in the body ; the head is lengthened and flattened ; 

 the ears and mouth comparatively small ; the neck 

 very thick and prolonged ; the soles of the feet very 

 large and clothed with fur, and the whole coat, 

 dense and long, is silvery white tinged with yellow ; 

 the claws black, rather short and stout, not much 

 curved; an additional conic tooth behind the ca- 

 nines. Habits almost amphibious. 



Ursus (thalarctos) maritimus. Polar Bear. 

 Sufficiently described in the foregoing characters, 

 though, we may add, that the species has a very 

 large naked black muzzle, and a keen sense of 

 smelling. It is affectionate to its young, ferocious 

 to all other living beings; feeds chiefly on seals, 

 young whales, and carcasses of dead cetacese ; and 

 will attack the walrus, who is, nevertheless, able 

 to cope with it : Cartwright saw one dive after a 

 salmon, and catch the prey; this is a sufficient 

 evidence of the power and agility these bears have 

 in the water : and the distance they can swim was 

 shown to Captain Lyons, who observed one mid 

 way, in Barrow's Straits, twenty miles either way 

 from land. 



