4-58 I>GLAR BEAR. 
large and strong. It seems confined to the very 
coldest parts of the globe ; being found within 80 
degrees of north latitude, as far as any navigators 
have yet penetrated. The shores of Hudson's 
Bay, Greenland, and Spitsbergen, are its princi- 
pal places of residence but it is said to have been 
accidentally carried on floating ice as far south as 
Newfoundland. This species seems to have been 
often confounded by authors with the white va- 
riety of the common Bear, which is occasionally 
found in the northern regions. 
The first tolerable figure of the Polar Bear 
seems to have been published by Mr. Pennant 
in his Synopsis of Quadrupeds, and is copied in 
the third supplemental volume of the Count 
de Buffon. A far superior representation, how- 
ever, occurs in the last voyage of Captain Cook. 
The Polar Bear is an animal of tremendous 
strength and fierceness. Barentz, in his voyage 
in search of a north-east passage to China, had 
proofs of the ferocity of these animals, in the 
island of Nova Zembla, where they attacked his 
seamen, seizing them in their mouths; carrying 
them off with the utmost ease, and devouring 
them in the sight of their comrades. It is said 
that they will attack and attempt to board ai'med 
vessels, at a great distance from shore, and hav^e 
-sometimes been with much difficulty repelled. 
Their usual food consists of seals, fish, and the 
carcases of whales ; but, when on land, they prey 
on deer, and other animals, as hares, young birds, 
^c. they also eat various kinds of berries which 
