THE WHITE BEAR. 36 1 



it occasionally might have visited, as we know the walrus 

 ■did, the coast of Nova Scotia and of Maine. 



Our supposition is based on the following facts : In an 

 ancient map of " New France," by the Italian Jacomo 

 di Gastaldi, in about the year 1550, republished by Kohl, 

 and which we present, though of reduced size, what we 

 should consider as veritable white bears are depicted as 

 swimming in the ocean far from the coast of what must 

 have been Nova Scotia, and near to but west of Sable 

 Island or " Isola della rena." In the map the bears are 

 placed to the southward of " Terra de Nvrvmbega," 

 which evidently comprised Nova Scotia and Eastern 

 Maine. Sable Island is an enlarged portion of a broad 

 band, intended to represent the banks of Newfoundland 

 and La Have. 



That the animals represented are bears admits of little 

 doubt ; of the four figures the lowermost one is a seal ; it 

 is drawn without ears, while the three other figures have 

 large, drooping ears, like those of a bear. At any rate, 

 if the locality was put in at haphazard by the map-drawer, 

 why should white bears be also represented, as they seem 

 to be in the ocean off Isola de Demoni. The figures of 

 the black bear, as well as of the rabbit and of the abo- 

 rigines were all drawn, and it seems not unreasonable to 

 infer that white bears were actually seen and reported to 

 the south and west of Newfoundland. 



That the white bear may have visited the coast of 

 Maine, near Portland, is further proved by the probable 

 ■discovery, by Prof. E. S. Morse of a white bear's tooth 

 in the shell heaps of Casco Bay. 



Speaking of the bones of the bears found in a shell 

 heap on Goose Island, Casco Bay, Maine, the late Pro- 



