*66 NATURAL HISTORY. 



CHAP. XIII. 



OF CARNIVOROUS ANIMALS CONTINUED THE 



BEAR THE BEAVER THE RACOON THE 



COATI THE AGOUTI. 



THE BEAR. 



I HERE is no animal more generally known than 

 the bear, and yet there is none about which the wri- 

 ters of natural history are less agreed. These uncer- 

 tainties have arisen from their not distinguishing pro- 

 perly the different species. The land-bear must be 

 distinguished from the sea-bear, which is commonly 

 known by the name of the white, or Greenland bear. 

 The land-bears must also be divided into two classes, 

 the brown, and the black. There are some white land- 

 bears found in Tartary, Russia, &c. which, though 

 they resemble the sea-bear in colour, differ from it, 

 however, in every other particular. It is not the ri- 

 gour of the climate that makes them white in winter, 

 like the hares and ermines ; they are brought forth 



