8 P O L A R B E A k. 



is white and larger than the common kind *. 

 The difference of habits feems not to be more 

 decifive than that of colour and magnitude. The 

 bear of the northern feas feeds upon fifhes. He 

 never quits the margins of the Tea, and often in- 

 habits the floating iflands of ice. But, if we 

 eonfider that the bear is an animal which eats 

 every thing, that, when prefled with hunger, he 

 has no choice, and that he is not afraid of wa- 

 ter, thefe habits will not appear fufficient to form 

 diftind: fpecies. Thefilh eaten by the fea-bears 

 is rather a kind of flefh, being chiefly the car- 

 cafles of whales, walrufes, and feals. The cli- 

 mate produces no other animals. Neither does 

 it afford grain or fruits ; and, confequently, the 

 bear is under the neceflity of fubfilling on the 

 produdlions of the fea. Is it not probable that 

 our bears, if tranfported to the mountains of 

 Spitzbergen, and finding no food upon land, 

 would take to the fea in queft of fubfiftence ? 



Colour, fize, and mode of living, being infuf- 

 ficient, no other effcntial charaders remain but 

 thofe which may be derived from figure. Now, 



all 



* Urfus in Polonia variat, maximus nigricans, minor ful- 

 vus, minimus argenciniis, in confiniis Mofchoviae pilis nigris 

 et argentei coloris mixci. ... ex Urfo occil'o pellis detracia 

 fere ad ulnas fex protendebatiir in terra Chel/r.-enfit altera in 

 P.ilatinatu BracLivicnJi, tertia ad ulnas quinque in Bondargcute 

 pago Palaonanis Pcmcraniae .... non raro ex Lithuania 

 advehuntur Gcdanum pelles ofto pedum ; Rzaczinjki, [<. 322. 

 — "Nota. This palFage proves that there are white laud-bears 

 as large as thofe of the Northern feas. 



