246 
BEAR. 
collect in great numbers, and, attracted by the smell 
of seals’ flesh, frequently surround the habitations 
of the natives, and attempt to enter their huts : but 
the Greenlander, being aware that his company if 
admitted would become troublesome, drives them 
away by the smell of burnt feathers. 
The white bear grows to a large size, and is said 
sometimes to measure thirteen feet in length. A 
smaller one measured by order of Captain Phipps 
was seven feet and an inch from the snout to the 
tail, its height at the shoulder was four feet three 
inches, the breadth of the fore paw seven inches, 
and the weight of the carcase, without the head, 
skin, or entrails, six hundred and ten pounds. 
The tendons of this animal are split into threads, 
by the Greenlanders, for sewing; and of the skin 
they make boots, shoes, and gloves. They like- 
wise feed on the flesh and fat ; which last is fre- 
quently so excessive, that a hundred pounds has 
been taken out of a single beast. The only un- 
wholesome part about the animal is the liver; which 
is so pernicious, that three of Hemskirk’s sailors be- 
came dangerously ill on eating some of it boiled. 
Pennant informs us, that the polar bear became 
part of the royal menagerie as early as the reign of 
Henry III. Mr. Walpole has proved how great a 
patron that despised prince was of the arts. It is 
not less evident that he extended his protection to 
natural history. We find he had procured a white 
bear from Norway, which the Norwegians had pro- 
bably imported from Greenland, they having pos- 
