ON A CUB FOUND IN A BEAR'S DEN — GILPIN. 151 



wrong in asserting that an especial form is necessary for every 

 zone, and that one form would not be sufficient for both places ; 

 or may it not have been that the great auk, with a form accord- 

 ing to ever}' naturalist of the purest arctic, flourished better in 

 these warm seas, with this form, and owes his extinction to 

 being pushed to where it was not adapted for existence. 



On a Cub Found in a Bear's Den, Jan. 12, 1880. — By Dr. 

 J. Bernard Gilpin. 

 On the 12th January, 1880, Stephen Bradford, an Indian, 

 hunting moose in the county of Digby, Nova Scotia, discovered 

 a bear's den, — seeing the dark skin of the bear beneath the 

 roots of an overturned tree, covered by its mantle of snow. 

 His gun being foul, he exploded many caps, and succeeded in 

 arousing the bear from her hibernation. Before he could dis- 

 charge the gun, she left her den, and he then tracked her through 

 the forest in the snow for a mile and a half when she denned 

 again. He returned to camp, cleaned his gun and returning 

 shot her. for she proved a she bear, in her temporary den, 

 Missing his coat, he returned to the first den, where he recollect- 

 ed throwing it off, and their found a cub, dead and frozen. This 

 cub he took to my son, who was in camp at the time, and who 

 sent it to me. Its weight was eleven ounces. It measured, 

 when stretched out, from tip of nose to end of hind toe, between 

 ten and eleven inches. It was covered by very fine close hair, 

 black upon the back and head but bluish slate towards the belly 

 and inside of limbs. The ears were naked ; the eyes closed ; 

 the tongue exposed, and the jaws slightly open. There were no 

 teeth, but the claws were much developed, and the tail long. 

 From the umbilicus being entirely healed, and no cicatrix upon 

 it, I judged it to be about ten days old. After a careful and 

 measured life-sized sketch, it was placed in alcohol. Though we 

 gain nothing new by the possession of this most rare specimen, 

 yet we verify personal observation, and, by date, statements 

 which have come down to us since the days of Pallas, and 

 repeated by Richardson, God man, and Audubon. Allowing the 



