WHITE BEAR. 203 
fronts of their prisons; but the White Bear 
moved backward and forward, in a line pa- 
rallel to the bars, waving its long and wea- 
sel-like head and neck, scratching the floor 
with its paws, and moving backward. till 
stopped by the partition behind it; then ad- 
vancing quietly to the other end; and then 
retreating back again, scratching, and moving 
its head horizontally, as before. If he had 
been in the act of making his way into a 
bank of snow, working partly with his 
muzzle, and partly with his feet, and throw- 
ing out the snow behind him in the way that 
all animals burrow, this might seem to have 
been the natural action required ; and nothing 
is more frequently to be observed in nature, 
than that animals perform certain actions in- 
stinctively at each return of certain seasons, 
though the circumstances in which they hap- 
g, in 
the same manner that plants put forth leaves 
pen. to be placed render them unavailin 
and blossoms at the times adapted to their 
original climates, rather than to those into 
which they are transplanted. 
The conversation upon the White, or 
Polar Bear, and upon so many other Bears 
