BEAR. 



325 



and there are recorded instances of the tiger being 

 put to flight in the same way. 



This species of bear is found in so many places, 

 and these so wide of eacli other, that we .might 

 expect numerous varieties both in size and in colour. 

 The form of the head is the most permanent cha- 

 racteristic, and serves better than any thing else to [ire- 

 vent the breaking down of the species into several, 

 or the confounding of it with the bears of America, 

 which it often very much resembles both in colour 

 and in size. Even in Europe the "remnants," 

 as we may call them, as they are partial residences 

 of an animal which was once general, differ con- 

 siderably from each other ; but still, the. bear of the 

 Pyrenees, the Alps, and the mountains of Lapland, 

 is specifically the saint' ; and it is probable that, with 

 similar interruptions, from tracts of country which 

 are either thickly inhabited or have become deserts, 

 it ranges in Asia, from the Polar Sea to the Hima- 

 laya Mountains. The bear of Nepal is different in 

 appearance from the bear of Kamtschatka; and it is 

 also different from the bears of India and the Oriental 

 Islands ; but its characters are so nearly intermediate 

 between the bears of the extreme north and the ex- 

 treme south, and its locality also so nearly interme- 

 diate between them in latitude, that it may be that 

 the whole are, as has been already hinted, climatal 

 varieties. All are climbers, all are vegetable feeders, 

 and all are mild and peaceable in their manners, when 

 they have plenty of food ami are not harassed and 

 annoyed. 



The proneness of this animal to variety in colour 

 renders it unsafe to infer a difference of species from 

 any thing except difference of form in the skeleton, 

 or differences of habit which cannot be accounted for 

 from differences of climate and food. Hence the 

 distinctions of brown bears, black bears, cinnamon 

 bears, and white bears (as land animals), which have 

 sometimes been described as inhabiting the same or 

 nearly the same parts of the eastern world, instead ol 

 being distinct species, arc not even distinct varieties, 

 as the colour changes from generation to generation 

 as well as in different individuals. 



The abundance of bears in the Swiss Mountains in 

 former times is proved by their having given name 

 to Berne, and at that place bear-pits are still kept up 

 in honour of the name. In these- pits they are fed 

 entirely on vegetable matter, the chief part, of which 

 is bread; but, according to a regulation of the police 

 all unripe fruit of whatever kind, which appears 

 at the Berne market, is confiscated for the use of the 

 bears. If a similar regulation were made in some 

 other cities, we should probably hear much less abou 

 cholera in the later summer and earlier autumna 

 months. The high condition of the Berne bears, the 

 length of time which the same individuals have lived 

 and similar circumstances in other places, all tend to 

 confirm the inference from the structure of the teeth 

 that this bear is essentially and properly a vegetabl 

 feeder. 



2. The POLAR BEAR, or SEA BEAR (Ursus marili 

 nuts'). The dreary climes to which this species i 

 confined, the perils and privations to which it mus 

 often be exposed amid turmoiling waves and reeling 

 mountains of ice, the peculiarity of its form and ap 

 pearance, its great strength and power of endnrint, 

 much hunger and the very extreme of cold, the manj 

 tales which are told of its ferocity and daring, th 

 strong attachments and kindly feelings which it du 



lays to its kind and in its domestic circle, all conspire 

 o render it not only the most interesting of the bears, 

 ut one of the most interesting animals in nature. 



The polar bear is well named from its locality, as 

 t is never found without the polar circle, except in 

 ongitudes where the extremity of the polar winter 

 extends further to the south ; and that takes place in 

 America only. It is a land animal, or more properly 

 an ice and snow animal, rather than an aquatic one ; 

 and yet its sole dependence for the greater part of 

 the year, and its principal dependence during the 

 remainder, is upon the sea. 



Its office seems to be that of chief scavenger to 

 hose regions in which the extremes of season pro- 

 duce the extreme of animal mortality, and though its 

 system of dentition resembles that of the other bears 

 t is, from its locality, as much of an animal feeder as 

 ;hey are of vegetable. Being an animal feeder, it 

 has a more habitual propensity to kill than the Kind 

 uears. But still, the prey which it pursues and cap- 

 tures in the living state is not land animals, but. ani- 

 mals of the sea not fishes, though occasionally it 

 may not reject them, but the aquatic mammalia; and 

 more especially those smaller kinds which subsist by 

 beinir fishers. Of these, the seal is perhaps its staple 

 food; and as the seals do not hybernate, but keep 

 breathing holes open in the ice, even in the depth of 

 the polar winter, this species of food is accessible to 

 the bear at all times of the year. In winter too the 

 foxes and wolves of the northern regions seek the 

 ice, because their summer food on the arctic lands 

 has either migrated to milder climates or is buried 

 beyond their reach in the snow ; these animals may 

 form part of the winter repast of the bear during the 

 portion of that season when it keeps the ice. Indeed 

 the fact of its hybernating or not is not very well 

 ascertained, though the probability is that the male, 

 at least, is not so long dormant as in the land bears 

 of the north. Neither does it appear that hyberna- 

 tion is general in the species; for captain Lyon 

 mentions having seen one (a male of course) prowling 

 about during the very coldest part of the season. 

 But that the females retire, at least for a time, and 

 that some of the males may do the same, would at 

 least agree with the general habit of the genus. 

 Mobility appears to be the grand preventive <;t 

 hibernation. Of this we have instances in human 

 beings who have all but perished in the snow ; and 

 those who are out in the inclement season, and 

 fatigued under a rigorous atmosphere with the 

 ground clad with snow, know how dangerous it is to 

 lie down in the hope of being recruited by a little 

 rest. The sleep which comes on in these cases is 

 not the common restorative sleep which is so neces- 

 sary for recruiting the vigour of the body. It is a 

 sleep of the circulating and breathing system, as well 

 as of the powers of sense and observation. It falls 

 in short upon the whole animal, and there is no 

 energy left awake by which a recruiting can in any 

 way be effected. Hence, when it takes place in 

 man, or in the ordinary animals in mild climates, 

 and is continued for even a moderate portion of time 

 at a very low temperature, the system wears out, 

 and life becomes extinct. If the body is covered by 

 a considerable depth of snow, the catastrophe is by 

 no means so speedy ; and the lengths of time which 

 both human beings and domestic animals have con- 

 tinued to live under such circumstances have often 

 been referred to as marvels. Those who perish in 



