BEAR. 



333 



vailing colour of the body is a mixture of white, brown, 

 and black, from which they have received the epithet 

 of grisly; but the legs, the feet, the shoulders, the 

 throat, the belly, and hinder parts of the thighs, are 

 darker arid more inclining to black than the rest of 

 the body, while the snout, so far as it is covered with 

 hair, is paler. The tail is very short, and in the living 

 animal, completely hidden by the hair. 



On the fore-paws, the claws are rather slender, but 

 long, as well as crooked, and sharp at the tips, though 

 the sharpness is rather that of a chisel, by being nar- 

 rowed at the sides, than a point. This structure gives 

 the tips of them great additional strength, and accounts 

 for the severe gashing wounds which are inflicted by 

 their stroke. The toes of these paws are furnished 

 each with a sub-oval naked tubercle, and the anterior 

 half of the palm is also naked, and of an oval shape, 

 placed lengthwise across the palm ; while the anterior 

 part has a rounded naked tubercle. The interstices 

 of these tubercles, and also between them and the 

 claws, are covered with thick and strong hair. The 

 soles of the hind feet, are also in great part naked ; 

 and the claws on them are considerably smaller than 

 those on the paws, though much more crooked ; and 

 their trenchant points form very terrible lacerating 

 instruments when the animal closes with its enemy in 

 hugging. They are sufficient to tear the abdomen of 

 even a large animal to shreds, while the fore-paws 

 are at the same time compressing its thorax to suf- 

 focation. 



The size of this species varies considerably. The 

 statement made by the Indians, that some specimens 

 are fourteen feet long, must be regarded as an exag- 

 geration to probably double the actual size ; though 

 one specimen killed by Lewis and Clark and their 

 party on the banks of the Missouri, measured eight 

 feet seven inches and a half from the nose to the ex- 

 tremity of the hind legs when extended. The length 

 from the nose to the tail, which is the usual measure- 

 ment of an animal, is not mentioned in this specimen ; 

 but it cannot have been more than between five and 

 six feet ; and five feet two inches is the length of those 

 in the museum of Philadelphia. The girth round the 

 breast of that mentioned by Lewis and Clark was five 

 feet ten inches and a half ; and that round the middle 

 of the fore-leg three feet eleven, a size far exceed- 

 ^ ing that of the paw of the lion, and giving sufficient 

 ' reason to believe that the paw of this bear is probably 

 the most formidable striking instrument possessed b.y 

 any kind of animal, and in all the departments ol 

 nature surpassed only by the tail of the whale. The 

 want of clavicles, and the consequent freedom ol 

 motion in the shoulder, which enables the animal to 

 add the blade-bone to the lever power of its paw, 

 greatly increases the effect of its murderous stroke, 

 The claws on the specimen alluded to were four 

 inches and three-quarters in length. Its weight 

 though inferior to that of the larger specimens of the 

 white bear, was between five hundred and six hun- 

 dred pounds, so that altogether he was an animal o: 

 giant strength. 



It does not, however, -appear that he seemed in- 

 clined to use that strength like a giant, at least against 

 the party ; for when they fired at and wounded him 

 he showed no disposition to attack them, as is gene- 

 rally the case with the less formidable black bear, but 

 made off with a tremendous roar ; and such was the 

 power of life in him, that, though five balls had passcc 

 through his lungs, and an equal number of gun-shot 



wounds had been inflicted on other parts of his body, 

 u: swam more than half way across the river to a 

 sand-bank, and lived for more than twenty minutes. 



The shooting of this animal by a single hunter is 

 both a dangerous and a difficult matter. One shot 

 will not kill, or even for a long time disable him, 

 unless it directly penetrates either the heart or the 

 jrain. The former of these is much protected by the 

 thick hair, the strong muscles, and the stiff ribs ; and 

 the latter by the equally strong muscles on the side of 

 the head, and the firmness of the skull, which is im- 

 penetrable to a rifle-bullet at any moderate distance, 

 unless that bullet takes effect perpendicularly to the 

 surface. 



But notwithstanding the formidable weapons and 

 vast strength of this animal, it does not appear to be 

 in accordance with his general habit to use them for 

 murderous purposes ; and the character of ferocity 

 which has been so liberally bestowed upon him bv 

 hunters and travellers, appears to be, like the savage 

 character given by showmen and bear- wardens to the 

 brown bear of Europe, the result of their own cruel 

 treatment, rather than of any instinctive propensity 

 in the animal. Thus the trivial name " korribi/is," 

 which has been given to it by the Americans, though, 

 as the original specific appellation, it must be allowed 

 to stand, is yet an exaggerated name, and savours not 

 a little of that love of amplification which never 

 suffers a man to fall accidentally from a height of less 

 than a hundred feet, or jump a chasm, the jaws of 

 which are not half that distance asunder. 



In the formation of its teeth, the grisly bear has 

 no more carnivorous character than the mildest of 

 the other land bears ; and if we are to suppose that 

 the number of false molars, which are small in size 

 and speedily fall out, any indication of an nncar- 

 nivorous character, this species should have that 

 character in greater perfection than any of the 

 others, inasmuch as it is furnished with a greater 

 number of those teeth. 



That the grisly bear is a vegetable feeder as lonar 

 as vegetable food can be found is unquestionable ; 

 and if its economy in its wild state could be ob- 

 served calmly and without hostility, there is as little 

 doubt that it would be found, even when vegetable 

 food fails, not to attack any living animal, as long as 

 it can find out, by its keen sense of smelling, the 

 carcass of a dead one. The constitutional character 

 of the genus, as has been already mentioned, is, in so 

 far as it is carnivorous, to destroy the remains of Hie 

 rather than life itself. In physical nature, the whole 

 race are in their locality, and consequently in their 

 habits (for locality and habit are always in keeping 

 with each other) allied to the destroying powers, 

 and not to the productive ones ; and therefore it 

 accords with the analogy of nature that we should 

 find them removing the effects of the havoc which 

 destruction has made, in preference to being in them- 

 selves constitutional and primary destroyers. 



As has been mentioned of the brown bear of Europe, 

 and as seems to be true of all the genus, with the 

 exception perhaps of the white bear, whose habits are 

 more aquatic than terrestrial, and therefore not suited 

 to domestication by man, the young of the grisly 

 bear might be tutored without much difficulty. 



No inference to the contrary of this can be drawn 

 from the accounts of the two which were in the 

 museum at Philadelphia, and had to be killed because 

 of their ferocious disposition. Every one who has 



