76 NOTES AND 



" white bears whose skin i? very fine and soft." (Vol. 1.) Forgter, the learri- 

 ed translator, says, in a note, " This cannot he the great polar hear, as this 

 latter is only to be met with in the most frigid parts of our globe ; and the soft 

 hair, here mentioned, will not admit to think of the polar bear whose hair is 

 like bristles." Notwithstanding this significant intimation, they have been gen- 

 erally confounded together. Whether this animal is a native of Europe and 

 Asia, I cannot distinctly sny ; but from the descriptions of Pennant, (Artie 

 Zoology, vol. 3.) I should suppose that it is. He says, that there are land 

 bears in the north of Tartan-, entirely white and of a very great size ; and that 

 the grizzly bears, (which are called by the germans silberbar, or the silver bear, 

 from the mixture of white hairs) are found in Europe, and in the northern parts 

 of North America, as high as latitude seventy; where a hill is called after them, 

 Grizzly- Boar-Hill. 



Upon the whole we may, with propriety, say, that the bear proper consists 

 of four distinct species : 



1 . The polar bear. 



2. The grizzly bear. 



3. The common bear of Europe. 



4. The common bear of America ; which is also said to be of two kinds, or, in 

 all probability, mere varieties. 



.1 lay no great stress upon the surmise that the grizzly bear and mr. Jefferson's 

 great darv, are the same animal. They agree pretty well in the dimensions 

 aud character of the claw, and in the general size ; but the correctness of the 

 hypothesis must be determined by a comparison of the bones. 



i\OTE 15. 



Although Buflbn seems to have, at one time, adopted this opinion yet he af- 

 terwards retracted it. In one place (vol. 3. p. 456.) he says, " the domestic ox,- 

 which ought not to be confounded with the urtis, the buffalo, or the bison, seems 

 to be a native of our temperate climates ; excessive heat, or excessive cold, being 

 equally hurtful to him. Besides, this species, so abundant over all Europe, is 

 not found in the equinoctial regions," etc. In another place, after a long chain 

 of ingenious and learned deduction, he arrives at this conclusion : " Thus the 

 wild and domestic ox of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, the bonasus, the 

 nnrochs, the bison, andthr zobu. are animals of the some species, which, accord- 



