POLAR BEAR. 
283 
At broadest part of the head. 
MALE. 
Inches. 
- 32.2 
FEMALE. 
Inches, 
28 
At largest part of the abdomen. 
- 65.2 
57.6 
Length of alimentary canal. 
- 61 
52 
Weight, 
900lbs. 
7001bs. 
The weight varies very much according to the season and condition of 
the animal. 
The largest measured 101.5 inches in length, and weighed 1028 lbs., 
although in poor condition. 
HABITS. 
We have journeyed together, friend reader, through many a deep dell, 
and wild wood, through swamp and over mountain ; we have stemmed 
the current of the Mississippi, sailed on our broad lakes, and on the ex- 
tended sea coast, from Labrador to Mexico ; we have coursed the huge 
buffalo over the wide prairies, hunted the timid deer, trapped the beaver, 
and caught the fox ; we have, in short, already procured, figured, and des* 
cribed, many of our animals ; and now, with your permission, we will 
send you with the adventurous navigators of the Polar Seas, in search of 
the White Bear, for we have not seen this remarkable inhabitant of the 
icy regions of our northern coast amid his native frozen deserts ; and can 
therefore give you little more than such information as may be found in 
the works of previous writers on his habits. During our visit to Labrador 
m 1833, we coasted along to the north as far as the Straits of Belleisle, 
but it being midsummer, we saw no Polar Bears, although we heard from' 
the settlers that these animals were sometimes seen there ; (on one 
occasion, indeed, we thought we perceived three of them on an ice-berg, 
but the distance was too great for us to be certain), although the abundance 
of seals and fish of various kinds on the shores, would have afforded 
them a plentiful supply of their ordinary food. They are doubtless drifted 
far to the southward on ice-bergs from time to time, but in our voyages 
to and from Europe we never saw any, although we have been for days 
in the ice. 
The Polar Bear is carnivorous, in fact omnivorous, and devours with 
equal voracity the carcases of whales, abandoned, and drifted ashore by 
the waves ; seals, dead fish, vegetable substances, and all other eatable 
matters obtainable, whether putrid or fresh. Dr. Richardson, in the Fauna 
Boreali Americana, has given a good compiled account of this animal, and 
we shall lay a portion of it before our readers. The Dr. says “ I 
