364 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



are born in March, the parent bringing forth usually one 

 at a time, sometimes two. 



While on the coast of Labrador in the summers of 

 i860 and 1864, we gathered what facts we could as to the 

 occurrence of this animal, publishing them in the Pro- 

 ■ceedingsof the Boston Society of Natural History (Vol. 

 X, 1866, 270), from which we take the following extract : 



" At Square island, a locality situated between Belle 

 Isle and Domino Harbor, two cubs were captured and 

 taken to St. Johns, Newfoundland. At Domino Har- 

 bor the skin of a bear killed during the preceding spring 

 (1863) was obtained by one of our party. An intelli- 

 gent hunter told me that the white bear was not unfre- 

 quently seen at Stag Bay, near Roger's Harbor, which 

 is situated a little more than fifty miles south of Hope- 

 dale. One was killed there during the preceding winter 

 (1863), and in the autumn their tracks were abundant. 

 They were very shy, and could not be seen in the day- 

 time. Further south they are much rarer. The last 

 polar bear said to have been seen in the Strait of Belle 

 Isle was shot fifteen years ago (1849), ^^ ^^^ settlement 

 of Salmon Bay." 



While the entire peninsula was during the glacial 

 period mantled in ice, and as cold, or nearly so, as 

 Greenland is at present, the more exposed parts of the 

 coast north of Belle Isle are still arctic, or at least sub- 

 arctic. On the other hand the main land, for the most 

 part consisting of Laurentian gneiss and schists, has 

 probably from Archaean times been dry land, forming an 

 important portion of the continental nucleus of North 

 America. Its scanty soil is now over a large proportion 

 of its surface probably frozen throughout the year ; the 



