A NEW WHITE BEAR, FROM BRITISH 

 COLUMBIA. 



By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. 



DURING the past twenty years, naturalists have been sur- 

 prised by the discovery in northwestern America of new 

 species of mammals so large and so conspicuous that it seemed 

 strange they had so long remained unknown. The finding of 

 the white mountain sheep, glacier bear, and several new forms 

 of caribou and mountain sheep, have strongly emphasized the 

 fact that the great Northwest contains many regions as yet 

 wholly unexplored by naturalists and scientific sportsmen. 



Indeed, it may truthfully be said that in northern British 

 Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Territory, zoological explorations 

 have only fairly begun. There are vast regions, containing we 

 know not what new animal life, which have been practically 

 untouched by the zoologist. Excepting the territory drained by 

 the Stickine River and a few of its smaller tributaries, northern 

 British Columbia is, to scientific collectors and students, a land 

 almost unknown, and therefore it is an inviting field for 

 exploration. 



In November, 1900, while making an examination of the skins 

 of North American bears that were to be found in Mctoria, 

 British Columbia, the writer found a very strange specimen in 

 the possession of ]\Ir. J. Boskowitz, a dealer in raw furs. The 

 skin was of a creamy-white color, and very small. Mr. Bos- 

 kowitz reported that it had come to him from the Nass River 

 country, and that he had previously received four or five similar 

 skins from the same locality. 



Although this skin was of small size, and had been worn by 

 an animal no larger than a grizzly cub one year old, its well- 

 worn teeth indicated a fully adult animal. Believing that the 

 specimen might really represent a new ursine form, it was pur- 

 chased, and held for corroborative evidence. In view of the 

 multiplicity of new species and sub-species of North American 

 bears that have been brought out during the past ten years, it 



