Uksidje. MAMMALIA. Ursid.®. 8?^ 
THE GEISLY BEAE ( Ursus ferox) is also an Ameri- 
bears, and it often happened that in turning the point 
can species. Its disposition is exceedingly fierce, and 
of a rock or sharp angle of a valley he came suddenly 
it is endowed with prodigious strength. Its muscular 
upon one or more of them. On such occasions they 
power may be estimated by the circumstance of a 
reared on their hind legs and made a loud noise like a 
specimen of this animal having been seen to carry 
person breathing quick, but much harsher. He kept 
the carcass of an American buffalo, weighing about 
his ground without attempting to molest them, and 
one thousand pounds, to a considerable distance. The 
they on their part, after attentively regarding him for 
travellers Messrs. Lewis and Clark measured a sped- 
some time, generally wheeled round and galloped off'; 
men which had attained a length of nine feet, and 
though, from their known disposition, there is little 
some persons pretend to have met with individuals 
doubt he would have been torn in pieces had he lost 
several feet longer. The head is broad and flattish 
his presence of mind and attempted to fly. When he 
on the crown, and nearly even from the occiput to the 
discovered them from a distance, he generally fright- 
nose, except in old specimens ; the ears are short and 
ened them away by beating on a large tin box in which 
conical ; the muzzle being wide, and of a pale colour. 
he carried his specimens of plants. He never saw 
The fur is long and of a deep-brown tint ; commercially 
more than four together, and two of these he supposes 
speaking, it is of inferior quality. Its limbs are 
to have been cubs ; he more often met them singly or 
powerful, the feet being armed with very long, com- 
in pairs. He was only once attacked, and then by a 
pressed, white, strongly -curved claws ; the inferior 
female, for the purpose of allowing her cubs time to 
border of the latter is particularly narrow. Its rudi- 
escape. His gun on this occasion missed fire, but he 
mentary tail is entirely concealed by the hair. With 
kept her at bay with the stock of it, until some gentle- 
regard to its habits, the grisly bear is more carnivorous 
men of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with whom he 
than the preceding species, although it does not refuse 
was travelling at the time, came up and drove her off. 
to subsist on a vegetable diet if animal food be not 
In the latter end of June, 1826, he observed a male 
forthcoming. Sir John Richardson has given us the 
caressing a female, and soon afterwards they both 
following interesting narrative, which he stales to be 
came towards him, but whether accidentally, or for the 
derived from authentic sources: — “A party of vo 3 mgers 
purpose of attacking him, he was uncertain. He 
who had been employed all day in tracking a canoe up 
ascended a tree, and as the female drew near, fired at 
the Sasketchewan, had seated themselves in the twilight 
and mortally wounded her. She uttered a few loud 
by a fire, and were busy in preparing their supper. 
screams, which threw the male into a furious rage, and 
when a large grisly bear sprung over their canoe that 
he reared up against the trunk of the tree in which Mr. 
was tilted behind them, and seizing one of the party by 
Drummond was seated, but never attempted to ascend 
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the shoulder, carried him off. The rest fled in terror. 
it. The female, in the meanwhile retiring to a short 
with the exception of a Metif named Bourasso, 
distance, lay down, and as the male was proceeding to 
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who, grasping his gun, followed the bear as it was 
join her, Mr. Drummond shot him also. From the 
retreating leisurely with its prey. He called to his 
size of their teeth and claws, he judged them to be 
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unfortunate comrade that he was afraid of hitting him 
about forty years old. The cubs of the grisly bear can 
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if he fired at the hear, but the latter entreated him to 
climb trees, but when the animal is fully grown it is 
fire immediately^ without hesitation, as the bear was 
unable to do so, as the Indians report, from the form 
squeezing him to death. On this he took a deliberate 
of its claws. Two instances are related by Lewis and 
aim, and discharged his piece into the body of the 
Clarke, and I have heard of several others, where a 
bear, which instantly dropped its prey to pursue 
hunter having sought shelter in a tree from the pursuit 
Bourasso. He escaped with difficulty, and the bear 
of a grisl)'' bear, has been held a close prisoner for 
ultimately retreated to a thicket, where it was supposed 
many hours, by the infuriated animal keeping watch 
to have died ; but the curiosity of the party not being 
below.” The flesh of the grisly bear is of very inferior 
a match for their fears, the fact of its decease was not 
quality ; so much so, indeed, that the native Indians 
ascertained. The man who was rescued had his arm 
reject it, unless other food cannot be procured 
fractured, and was otherwise severely bitten by the 
Although these animals invariably hybernate during 
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bear, but finally recovered. I have seen Bourasso, and 
the winter months, the old males sometimes steal forth 
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can add that the account which he gives is fully 
from their snug abodes to seek for food. The grisly bear 
credited by the traders resident in that part of the 
has a pretty wide geographical distribution on the 
country, who are best qualified to judge of its truth from 
North American continent, extending from a latitude 
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tlie knowledge of the parties. I have’ been told that 
of upwards of sixty degrees north, to Mexico in the 
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there is a man now living in the neighbourhood of 
south. It is most abundant on the eastern slopes of 
Edmonston House who was attacked by a grisly bear. 
the Rocky Mountains. 
which sprung out of a thicket, and with one stroke of 
THE POLAE BEAE {Thalarctos maritimus), Plate 
its paw completely scalped him, laying bare the skull. 
12, fig. 39. — This is the most carnivorous of all the 
and bringing the skin of the forehead down over the 
bears, probably however, more by necessity than by 
ej'es. Assistance coming up, the bear made off with- 
choice. It is essentially a marine animal, destined to 
out doing him further injury, but, the scalp not being 
wander to and fro on blocks of ice, in dreary soli- 
replaced, the poor man has lost his sight, although he 
tudes and wastes, seldom visited, save by the Esqui- 
thinks that his eyes are uninjured. Mr. Drummond, 
maux and a few of the more enterprising spirits of 
in his excursions over the Rocky Mountains, had fre- 
human kind. Plere the polar bear makes havoc 
queni opportunities of observing the manners of grisly 
among seals, whales, walruses, and other denizens of 
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