CARXIVORA. 245 



The males reside all the winter on ice, and are 

 often carried out to sea to a great distance ; some- 

 times they reach Iceland or Norway, and commit 

 such devastations, that the peasantry assemble to 

 destroy them. The females hibernate, and pro- 

 duce their young under the snow. On land they 

 have a shuffling kind of canter, certainly faster than 

 the best running pace of a man ; and, on snow and 

 ice, their hairy feet prevent them from slipping. 

 In size these bears are much longer and broader, 

 though not higher, than the brown. The measure- 

 ments of French and English zoologists, taken from 

 living specimens in menageries, are necessarily from 

 animals whose growth was checked by captivity and 

 uncongenial climate. A full grown male bear is 

 commonly between 7 and 8 feet in length, and 

 weighs from 1000 to 1200 pounds; and Captain 

 Lyons killed one 8' 7J" in length, which weighed 

 1600 pounds. In a Dutch narrative, the length 

 of one is given as 23 feet, by the ancient method 

 of measurement, which is an evident misprint for 

 13; now, measuring Captain Lyons' specimen, from 

 the nose to the extremity of the feet, it would 

 scarcely be less ; and, therefore, we see no attempt 

 at wilful misrepresentation. 



Fossil bears were long known under various fan- 

 ciful names, until Blumenbach distinguished among 

 the bones, found in the caverns of Bareuth, and, in 

 particular, at Geulenreuth, the skulls of two species, 

 which he denominates Ursus speleus, and Ursus 

 arctoides ; the former in size equal to a horse, and 



