MAMMALIA. 21 
]9.] » 2. Ursus Arctos? Americanus. Barren-ground Bear. 
Grizzly Bear. Hearnz’s Journey, passim. 
Brown Bear, variety 3, Grizzly. Prennant’s 4rct. Zool. vol. i. p. 62. 
The Brown Bears of America are, by some authors, supposed to be merely 
varieties of the Black Bear of the preceding article; whilst others have con- 
sidered them to belong to a distinct species, whose identity, however, with the 
Brown Bear of Europe has not been ascertained; neither has any one given it a 
new specific appellation. ‘The obscurity in which the subject is involved has 
been increased by the accounts received from the natives of another species, named 
the Grisly Bear (Ursus ferox) having been amalgamated with the descriptions 
that authors have given of their Brown Bear. Warden* mentions a Brown Bear 
under the appellation ofthe “ Ranging Bear,” and says that it has the general 
shape of the Black Bear, but that its body and legs are longer, and that it is more 
ferocious when wounded. It is said to be an inhabitant of the United States, par- 
ticularly of the western districts; but it never came under our notice, and the 
remainder of this article has no relation to it. From the inquiries I made through- 
out the woody country from Lake Superior to Great Slave Lake, being ten 
degrees of latitude, I learnt that the natives of those districts are acquainted with 
only two species of Land Bear, viz., the Common Black Bear, including the cinna- 
mon-coloured and other varieties, and the Grisly Bear, which is confined to the 
lofty chain of the Rocky Mountains, and the extensive plains that skirt their bases. 
The barren lands, however, lying to the northward and eastward of Great Slave 
Lake, and extending to the Arctic Sea, are frequented by a species of Bear, which 
differs from the American Black Bear in its greater size, profile, physiognomy, 
longer soles, and tail; and from the Grisly Bear also, in colour and the compa- 
rative smallness of its claws. Its greatest affinity is with the Brown Bear of 
Norway ; but its identity with that species has not been established by actual 
comparison. It frequents the sea-coast in the autumn in considerable numbers, 
for the purpose of feeding on fish, 
The general colour of this Bear is a dusky-(or sometimes yellowish)-brown, but 
* WaRDEN’s United States. 
