224 P O L A R B E A R. 



Gerard de Veira afierts, tliat, after killing one 

 of thefe bears, he meafured the fkin, and found 

 it to be twenty-three feet long, which is more 

 than triple the length of the common bear ". 

 We likewife find, from the CoUedion of Voyages 

 to the North, that thefe fea-bears are larger and 

 more ferocious than ours. But, in the fame 

 Colledion, it is faid, that, though thefe bears are 

 differently formed, and have the head and neck 

 much longer, and the body more flender and 

 agile, they are nearly of the fame fize with the 

 common kind f. 



All voyagers likewife agree, that the fea-bears 

 have the bones of the head lb hard, that no blow 

 of a club, though fufficient to bring an ox to the 

 ground, can ftun them ; and that their voice 

 rather refembles the barking of an enraged dog 

 than the deep murmuring cry of the common 

 bear. Robert Lade alfure us, that, in the en- 

 virons .of the river Rupper, he killed tvvo. fea- 

 bears of a prodigious fize ; that thefe famiflied 

 and ferocious animals attacked the hunters with 

 fuch impctuofity, that they killed feveral Sava- 

 gesi and wounded two Engliflimen, In page 

 34. of the third Dutch Voyage to the North, 

 we are told, that the failors killed, on the*coa(l 

 of Nova Zembla, a fea-bear whofe iTcin was thir- 

 teen feet long. Upon the whole, therefore,.! 



am 



* Trois navigations admirables faites par les HollanJois 

 au Siptentrion, p. no. 



•j- Recueil des Voyages du Nord, torn. *. p. njv, . i"' 



