228 FAMILY URSIDJ5 ; BEARS. 



Various species of Bear are diffused through Europe, Asia, and 

 America ; but Africa is almost (although not entirely, as has 

 been supposed,) destitute of them. The Brown Bear is the 

 species best known ; it inhabits the mountainous parts of Europe, 

 from the Arctic circle to the Alps and Pyrenees, and also the 

 north of Asia and Siberia ; it was formerly a tenant of the hills 

 and forests of our own island, whence it was exported to Rome, 

 to be a partaker in the cruel fights exhibited in the Circus. It 

 has been long, however, exterminated from Britain; the year 

 1057 being the date of the latest mention of it in Scotland, where, 

 like the Wolf, it seems to have lingered after being driven from 

 England. The Black Bear is very widely diffused through 



FIG. 114. AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 



North America, from the Arctic Sea, to its southern extremity ; 

 and its skin was at one time a considerable article of com- 

 merce. One of the largest known species, is the Grisly Bear 

 of North America, which is everywhere dreaded for its strength 

 and ferocity, and which even attacks and vanquishes the huge 

 Bison. And the Polar Bear, whose residence is amidst the snow 

 and ice of the arctic regions, seems to attain a yet larger size, 

 the length of one killed in Captain Lyon's expedition being stated 

 at eight feet and a half, and its weight at 1600 Ibs. This for- 

 midable animal feeds chiefly upon Seals ; in pursuit of which it 



