-MAMMALIA. UKSID.E. 



83 



THE GRISLY BEAR ( Ursus ferox) is also an Ameri- 

 can species. Its disposition is exceedingly fierce, and 

 it is endowed with prodigious strength. Its muscular 

 power may be estimated by the circumstance of a 

 specimen of this animal having been seen to carry 

 the carcass of an American buffalo, weighing about 

 one thousand pounds, to a considerable distance. The 

 travellers Messrs. Lewis and Clark measured a speci- 

 men which had attained a length of nine feet, and 

 some persons pretend to have met with individuals 

 several feet longer. The head is broad and flattish 

 on the crown, and nearly even from the occiput to the 

 nose, except in old specimens ; the ears are short and 

 conical ; the muzzle being wide, and of a pale colour. 

 The fur is long and of a deep-brown tint ; commercially 

 speaking, it is of inferior quality. Its limbs are 

 powerful, the feet being armed with very long, com- 

 pressed, white, strongly -curved claws ; the inferior 

 border of the latter is particularly narrow. Its rudi- 

 mentary tail is entirely concealed by the hair. With 

 regard to its habits, the grisly bear is more carnivorous 

 than the preceding species, although it does not refuse 

 to subsist on a vegetable diet if animal food be not 

 forthcoming. Sir John Richardson has given us the 

 following interesting narrative, which he states to be 

 derived from authentic sources: "A party of voyagers 

 who had been employed all day in tracking a canoe up 

 the Sasketchewan, had seated themselves in the twilight 

 by a fire, and were busy in preparing their supper, 

 when a large grisly bear sprung over their canoe that 

 was tilted behind them, and seizing one of the party by 

 the shoulder, carried him off. The rest fled in terror, 

 with the exception of a Metif named Bourasso, 

 who, grasping his gun, followed the bear as it was 

 retreating leisurely with its prey. He called to his 

 unfortunate comrade that he was afraid of hitting him 

 if he fired at the bear, but the latter entreated him to 

 tire immediately, without hesitation, as the bear was 

 squeezing him to death. On this he took a deliberate 

 aim, and discharged his piece into the body of the 

 bear, which instantly dropped its prey to pursue 

 Bourasso. He escaped with difficulty, and the bear 

 ultimately retreated to a thicket, where it was supposed 

 to have died ; but the curiosity of the party not being 

 a match for their fears, the fact of its decease was not 

 ascertained. The man who was rescued had his arm 

 fractured, and was otherwise severely bitten by the 

 bear, but finally recovered. I have seen Bourasso, and 

 can add that the account which he gives is fully 

 credited by the traders resident in that part of the 

 country, who are best qualified to judge of its truth from 

 the knowledge of the parties. I have been told that 

 there is a man now living in the neighbourhood of 

 Edmonston House who was attacked by a grisly bear, 

 which sprung out of a thicket, and with one stroke of 

 its paw completely scalped him, laying bare the skull, 

 and bringing the skin of the forehead down over the 

 eyes. Assistance coming up, the bear made off with- 

 out doing him further injury, but, the scalp not being 

 replaced, the poor man has lost his sight, although he 

 thinks that his eyes are uninjured. Mr. Drummond, 

 in his excursions over the Eocky Mountains, had fre- 

 quent opportunities of observing the manners of grisly 



bears, and it often happened that in turning the point 

 of a rock or sharp angle of a valley he came suddenly 

 upon one or more of them. On such occasions they 

 reared on their hind legs and made a loud noise like a 

 person breathing quick, but much harsher. He kept 

 his ground without attempting to molest them, and 

 they on their part, after attentively regarding him for 

 some time, generally wheeled round and galloped off; 

 though, from their known disposition, there is little 

 doubt he would have been torn in pieces had he lost 

 his presence of mind and attempted to fly. When he 

 discovered them from a distance, he generally fright- 

 ened them away by beating on a large tin box in which 

 he carried his specimens of plants. He never saw 

 more than four together, and two of these he supposes 

 to have been cubs ; he more often met them singly or 

 in pairs. He was only once attacked, and then by a 

 female, for the purpose of allowing her cubs time to 

 escape. His gun on this occasion missed fire, but he 

 kept her at bay with the stock of it, until some gentle- 

 men of the Hudson's Bay Company, with whom he 

 was travelling at the time, came up and drove her off. 

 In the latter end of June, 1826, he observed a male 

 caressing a female, and soon afterwards they both 

 came towards him, but whether accidentally, or for the 

 purpose of attacking him, he was uncertain. He 

 ascended a tree, and as the female drew near, fired at 

 and mortally wounded her. She uttered a few loud 

 screams, which threw the male into a furious rage, and 

 he reared up against the trunk of the tree in which Mr. 

 Drummond was seated, but never attempted to ascend 

 it. The female ; in the meanwhile retiring to a short 

 distance, lay down, and as the male was proceeding to 

 join her, Mr. Drummond shot him also. From the 

 size of their teeth and claws, he judged them to be 

 about forty years old. The cubs of the grisly bear can 

 climb trees, but when the animal is fully grown it is 

 unable to do so, as the Indians report, from the form 

 of its claws. Two instances are related by Lewis and 

 Clarke, and I have heard of several others, where a 

 hunter having sought shelter in a tree from the pursuit 

 of a grisly bear, has been held a close prisoner for 

 many hours, by the infuriated animal keeping watch 

 below." The flesh of the grisly bear is of very inferior 

 quality ; so much so, indeed, that the native Indians 

 reject it, unless other food cannot be procured. 

 Although these animals invariably hybernate during 

 the winter months, the old males sometimes steal forth 

 from their snug abodes to seek for food. The grisly bear 

 has . a pretty wide geographical distribution on the 

 North American continent, extending from a latitude 

 of upwards of sixty degrees north, to Mexico in the 

 south. It is most abundant on the eastern slopes of 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



THE POLAE BEAK (Thalarctos maritimus), Plate 

 12, fig. 39. This is the most carnivorous of all the 

 bears, probably however, more by necessity than by 

 choice. It is essentially a marine animal, destined to 

 wander to and fro on blocks of ice, in dreary soli- 

 tudes and wastes, seldom visited, save by the Esqui- 

 maux and a few of the more enterprising spirits of 

 human kind. Here the polar bear makes havoc 

 among seals, whales, walruses, and other denizens of 



