254 SEA-BEAR OF STELLER. 



from each other in all their minute characteristic 

 points.* We shall first introduce the very elaborate 

 description of Steller, supplying an abridgment of 

 his enlarged account in nearly a literal transla- 

 tion. 



This nearly amphibious animal, of the size of a 

 very large Bear, resembles no animal so much as 

 that we have just named ; there is an exception, 

 in that the feet and hinder parts of the body sud- 

 denly diminish in their dimensions, become weak 

 and slender, and terminate in a conical shape ; so 

 much so, that the circumference of the body, which is 

 five feet at the shoulder, is reduced to twenty inches 

 near the tail. The extreme length is seven and a 

 half feet. The head especially resembles that of the 

 Common Bear, but on account of the thickness of 

 the skin and fat, it appears larger and rounder. 

 The mouth is very small and prominent, as in the 

 Bear ; the forehead rises suddenly towards the 

 eyes ; the nostrils are composed of black skin, and 

 are not covered with hair ; they are oval and open ; 

 the lips are externally tumid, and internally of a rosy 

 hue ; the whiskers are long, but not numerous ; the 

 teeth are like those of the Sea- Lion, (p. 236,) with 

 this important difference, that they are only a quarter 

 of the size ; the apex of the tongue is bifurcated ; 

 the eyes are very prominent and full, nearly as large 

 as those of the ox, the iris is black, the pupil bright 

 green ; there are eye-lids and eye-brows, with a 



Ann. des Mus. d'Hist. Nat, t, xv. 293. 



