BEARS. 
11 
smaller than the European. Exact measurements of large European examples 
are not easy to obtain, but it is probable that some specimens reach at least 
8 feet from the tip of the snout to the root of the tail. In the Himalaya the 
same dimensions are not generally more than 5 or of feet, but large specimens 
reach about 7 feet, and one has been recorded of 7|- feet in length and 3 feet 5 
inches in height. The tail does nbt measure more than 2 or 3 inches. 
The brown bear may be regarded as an inhabitant of almost the whole of 
Europe, and of Asia northwards of the Himalaya; its former range extending 
from the British Islands and Spain in the west to Kamschatka in the east. 
Bears are still found in the Pyrenees, and are comparatively common in many 
parts of Scandinavia, Germany, Hungary, and Russia. At what date they 
finally disappeared from the British Islands cannot be determined. Mr. Harting, 
however, adduces evi¬ 
dence to show that bears 
were still in existence in 
the eighth century; and, 
in the time of Edward the 
Confessor, the town of 
Norwich had to furnish 
annually one bear to the 
king. There is no decisive 
historical evidence as to 
the existence of bears in 
Ireland, but remains have 
been found there in 
various parts, which in all 
probability belonged to 
the present species, al¬ 
though they have been 
referred by some to the 
American grizzly bear. 
In the Himalaya the 
brown bear is found from Afghanistan in the west to Nipal in the east. It does 
not occur in the more or less Tibetan districts of Zanskar and Ladak, but 
extends up the valley of the Indus as far as Gilgit. In the mountains around the 
valley of Kashmir brown bears were once very numerous, but they have, I believe, 
become much rarer now. When I first knew Kashmir, in 1874, it was no 
uncommon event in the Tilel district to see several at once, when standing on a 
mountain ridge; but eight years later I saw but very few the whole time I was 
there, and it would be interesting to hear the reports of sportsmen who have 
recently visited Tilel and the neighbouring valleys. 
In Kamschatka, Dr. Guillemard, in the Cruise of the Marchesa, speaks of 
brown bears being extremely plentiful and attaining large dimensions. The 
country near the rivers is there covered by an almost impenetrable jungle, but the 
bears manage to force themselves through it without much apparent difficulty. 
“ Just inside the forest,” writes Dr. Guillemard, “ at a distance of six oi eight feet 
head OF brown bear. (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867.) 
