POLAR OR WHITE BEAR. 



Ursus maritimus. — Linn. 



THE Polar Bear inhabits the extreme northern portions of 

 both continents. • In size it almost equals the Grizzly bear, 

 attaining a weight of from one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds. 

 It differs in many respects from other bears, and some naturalists 

 have regarded these differences as of generic value, and have 

 formed for it the genus Thalassarctus. A discussion of the points 

 in which it is unlike its relatives, has however, no place in this 

 work, and we prefer to retain for it, for the present at least, its 

 Linnean name. 



The head of the Polar Bear is flattened, the profile being almost 

 a straight line. The neck is twice as long and thicker than the 

 head ; the contour of the body is elongated, the paws are of huge 

 proportions, and thickly covered on the under side with coarse 

 hair, doubtless to keep them from slipping on the ice ; and the 

 toes are armed with formidable claws. The hair all over the body 

 is of a uniform yellowish white or straw color, while the eyes, nose, 

 and claws are jet black. The mouth is somewhat small, armed 

 with large, strong teeth, which seem well calculated to catch, cut 

 and tear tough seal meat, the White Bear's natural food. 



The Polar Bear has been found in the highest northern lati- 

 tudes ever reached by navigators. It exists on all Asiatic coasts 

 of the frozen ocean from the mouth of the Obi eastward, and 

 much abounds in Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen, though it has not 

 been observed on any of the islands of Behring's Strait ; yet it is 

 found in Greenland and Labrador, as well as along the coasts of 

 Baffin's and Hudson Bay. 



In confinement the Polar Bear is savage and irritable, and vis- 

 itors at menageries are generally impressed by the morose and 

 unsociable temper of these animals. They never play together, 

 but are contfrtually quarrelling and fighting, and it is but a short 



2 



