116 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
tribe with which we commenced our series. Instead of 
the compressed and lengthened body, with its soft, sleek, 
and variegated covering, and the long and graceful tail 
by which it is terminated, we have a broad, awkward, 
and thickset figure, covered with a rough, shaggy, and 
unattractive fur, and ending in a scarcely visible appen- 
dage, serving neither for ornament nor use. The differ- 
ence in gait and motion is as remarkable as that of 
shape; for while the one elides gently along, as it were 
on tiptoe, or bounds onwards with the velocity of thought, 
the other appears to be oppressed by the weight of his 
ponderous and unwieldy bulk, and supporting himself 
on the full expansion of his dilated paws, scarcely moves 
without the semblance of an effort. The short and 
rounded jaws of the cats, with their close and regular 
series of powerful cutting and lacerating teeth, and their 
rough and rasplike tongue, are supplied by a broad and 
lengthened snout, teeth of a character totally different in 
almost every essential point, and a soft, smooth, and 
extensible tongue. The claws too, which in the cats are 
strongly curved, exceedingly sharp at their edges, taper- 
ing gradually to a fine point, and capable of being 
entirely retracted within their sheaths, are here indeed 
of great power, and sometimes even considerably arched, 
but rounded in their surfaces, more or less blunted at 
their extremities, and constantly protruded to their full 
extent. In this manner might the contrast be pursued 
through almost every organ; but our limits warn us that 
we must at once proceed to the enumeration of the 
essential characters which combine the Bears into a well 
marked group. 
These characters are derived, first, from their com- 
