northern district of Siberia, and to the wanner region 

 of Thibetand China, in which latter places it is procured 

 with le?s trouble, and esteemed of more value. The 

 musk, which is contained in a bag attached to the ab- 

 domen of the male musk animal, is solid, in grains of 

 different sizes, and of a strong, acrid, disagreeable fla- 

 vour. A single grain of musk has been known to con- 

 stantly fill the air of one apartment with a sensible im- 

 pregnation for fifty years, without its weight being 

 perceptibly diminished. How musk possesses such ex- 

 traordinary powers of scent, is not, indeed, very accu- 

 rately ascertained ; but tlie best chemical analysts have 

 supposed it to proceed from a process of putrefaction 

 going on at the time the odour is emitted. 



In juxta-position with the ]Musk Ox we find the 

 Polar Bear — a mngnificent animal, brought home by 

 Captain (now Sir John) Ross, from the INIelville Islands, 

 in his first voyage to the North Pole ni the year 1818. 

 This is a fair sample of the L'rsiue race generally, and 

 may be looked upon as giving a tolerable idea of their 

 usual dimensions. Tliey abound in Nova Zembla, 

 Greenland, and the coasts of Baffin's and Hudson's 

 Bay, but none have ever yet been seen on tlie shores of 

 the' "White Sea. Their diet chiefly consists of the float- 

 ing carcases of whales and other marine animals ; but 

 that the Polar Bear can subsist etjually well on vege- 



