232 Dr. Horsfield on the Helarctos Emyspiius, 



toute contraire je trouve que dans I'ours de Java les grosses mo- 

 laires se rapprochent tellement de la canine qu'il n'y a point d' 

 espace vide ; celle qui est la premiere des quatre en serie s' y 

 trouve meme extremement petite a la machoire superieure, tant 

 elle y est comprimee entre celle de derriere la canine et la car- 

 nassiere." But the Polar Bear and the Helarctos are as much 

 distinguished by their manners and disposition as by their organ- 

 ization. It is not however my intention to contrast them at pre- 

 sent in all points of view; to exhibit fully the peculiarities of 

 each would afford matter for very ample details. The Polar Bear 

 lives in the most distant regions of the North, near the ocean, 

 among ice and tempests. Its food is exclusively of an animal na- 

 ture, and is supplied by fishes, seals, and the carcasses of whales. 

 It passes more than half the year in a torpid state, and when it 

 awakes exhibits an unconquerable ferocity of disposition. Al- 

 though repeatedly taken in a young state, no individual has ever 

 been even partially domesticated. The voyages to the Northern 

 regions abound with accounts of its courage and fierceness. It 

 has often been found a dangerous and destructive enemy to man. 

 The Helarctos on the contrary, inhabits the most delightful and 

 fertile regions of the globe. The range both of the Malayan and 

 Bornean species appears to be limited to within a few degrees of 

 the equator, and it is therefore with propriety designated as the 

 Equinoctial Bear. Its food is almost exclusively vegetable, and 

 it is often attracted to the society of man, by its fondness for the 

 young protruding summits of the cocoanut trees. It appears there- 

 fore not uufrequently at the villages, and has in many instances 

 been taken and made to submit to the confinement of a domes- 

 tic life. Whenever in the countries which it inhabits the natives 

 change their residence, the cocoanut trees become the prize of 

 the Helarctos. In one of his excursions through the Passumah 

 district of Sumatra, Sir Stamford Raffles found the cocoanut trees 

 of deserted villages destroyed by the Malayan Bear. It is well 

 known to be fond of delicacies. In its native forests, its length- 

 ened tongue fits it peculiarly for feeding on honey, which is abun- 

 dantly supplied by various indigenous species of Bees. The "sa- 

 gacity it displays in confinement, shews that its manners in a 



