THE POLAR BEAR. 



411 



The shape of the head is rather remarkable, for whereas in the Brown and other 

 Bears the muzzle is separated from the forehead by a well-marked depression, in the 

 Polar Bear the line from the forehead to the nose is almost continuous. The foot of 

 the Nennook is of surprising comparative length, for it is equivalent in length to one- 

 sixth of the entire length of the body, whereas in the Brown Bear it is but one-tenth of 

 that measurement. The sole of the foot is covered with a thick coating of warm fur, 

 which is in all probability intended for the double purpose of protecting the extremities 

 from the intense cold of the substance which it is formed to traverse, and of enabling 

 the creature to tread firmly on the hard and slippery ice. 



From these and other peculiarities of form it is now acknowledged as a separate 

 species of Bear, and even removed into a different genus by many naturalists, although 



POLAR BEAR. Thalarctos marltimas. 



the earlier writers on this subject supposed that it was merely a permament variety of 

 the Brown Bear, which had obtained a white coat by constant exposure to the terrible 

 cold of these wintry regions, and whose form had been slightly modified by the ever- 

 repeated habits of its strange life. 



The skeleton which is here presented to the reader is that of the Polar Bear, and has 

 been selected because it affords an excellent example of the peculiar bony formation 

 around which the body of the Bear is built, and at the same time exhibits some of the 

 characteristics which distinguish the Polar from the other Bears. The reader will 

 especially notice the length of the neck, the peculiar flatness of the skull, and the very 

 great comparative length of the feet. 



Although so powerful an animal, and furnished by nature with such dreadful arms of 



