WHITE BEAR> 
selves that they were amphibious, like the seal, 
and that they even remain under water as 
long as they please. The contrary, however, 
Buffon maintains, is evident from the manner 
in which they exist. They even swim, he 
says — though other naturalists speaks very 
difFerently — but a short time together, and not 
more than a mile at once ; they are easily fol- 
lowed by a boat till weary ; and, though they 
sometimes plunge to tlie bottom of the water, 
to refresh themselves, they are soon obliged to 
rise to the surface for fear of drowning, 
when the hunters kill them. 
Bears sometimes wholly white, but more 
frequently brown, or black spotted with that 
colour, are occasionally seen on the parts of 
the Russian borders ^in Siberia, in a wander- 
inor state ; which are supposed, by Dr, Pallas, 
to have strayed out of the lofty snowy moun* 
tains which divide the two countries. 
