232 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



encountering us ; but although, to a skilful rifleman, the 

 danger is much diminished, yet the White Bear is still a 

 terrible animal." 



On approaching these two, Captain Lewis and the hunter 

 fired, and each wounded a bear ; one of them made his 

 escape ; the other turned upon Captain Lewis, and pur- 

 sued him seventy or eighty yards, but being badly wounded, 

 he could not run so fast as to prevent him from re-loading 

 his piece, which he again aimed at him, and a third shot, 

 from the hunter, brought him to the ground. 



Another instance is recorded, by these travellers, of the 

 tenacity of life in this species. An individual received five 

 balls through his lungs, and five other wounds ; notwith- 

 standing which, he swam more than half across a river to a 

 sand-bar, and survived more than twenty minutes. He 

 weighed between five and six hundred pounds, and mea- 

 sured eight feet, seven inches and a half, from the nose to 

 the extremity of the hind feet; five feet, ten inches, and 

 a half, round the breast ; three feet, eleven inches, round 

 the neck ; one foot, eleven inches, round the middle of 

 the fore-leg ; and his claws, five on each foot, were four 

 inches and three-eighths in length. A specimen of this 

 species is now in the Tower, which is engraved, to illus- 

 trate this description. 



As there are very few genera among the mammalia, more 

 natural than that of the Bears, so, by a necessary conse- 

 quence, are there none of which it is more difficult to mark 

 the specific distinctions. Accordingly, we find that the 

 Polar Bear, (Ursus Maritimus,) had always received his 

 proper generic appellation ; yet his specific characters re- 

 mained long unestablished, and naturalists were uncertain, 

 if he should be considered as a distinct species from the 

 others, or merely an albino variety of the common Brown 

 Bear. B.uffon, at first, as we may see, in his fifteenth vo- 

 lume, entertained this very doubt, having no other means 



