60 MEMOIR OF PENNANT. 



fish; it is besides used medicinally, and found 

 very efficacious in rheumatic complaints, aches, and 

 strains*/' 



The only other passage we shall give from the 

 Arctic Zoology, is a curious and somewhat romantic 

 description of the habits of the ursine seal, which 

 are found in vast multitudes in the islands between 

 Kamtschatka and America, but are scarcely known 

 to land on the Asiatic shore. " They live in fami- 

 lies ; every male is surrounded by a seraglio of 

 from eight to fifty females ; these he guards with 

 the jealousy of an eastern monarch. Each family 

 keeps separate from the others, notwithstanding they 

 lie by thousands on the shore. Every family, with 

 the unmarried and the young, amounts to about 

 ] 20. They also swim in tribes, when they take the 

 sea. The males show great affection towards their 



* In England, the polar bear became part of the royal 

 menagerie as early as the reign of Henry III. Mr. Walpole 

 has proved how great a patron that despised prince was of 

 the arts ; it is not less evident that he extended his protec- 

 tion to Natural History. We find that he had procured a 

 white bear from Norway, whence it was probably imported 

 from Greenland ; the Norwegians having possessed that country 

 eome centuries before that period. There are two writs 

 extant from that monarch, directing the Sheriff of London 

 " to furnish sixpence a-day to support our white bear in our 

 Tower of London ; and to provide a muzzle and iron chain 

 to hold him, when out of the water ; and a long and strong 

 rope to hold him when he was fishing in the Thames." Fit 

 provision was made, at the same time, for the King's ele- 

 phant. 



