person possessing the least sensibility would countenance or encourage such exhibitions! Withhold the profit derived from them, and they must cease of themselves.

THE WHITE BEAR.

Of all the varieties of the bear, the white or polar bear is the most extraordinary, and in many respects the most formidable, whether we consider his prodigious size and strength, his dauntless courage, or his insatiable appetite.

So.

The polar bear is always white, or nearly His oval-shaped, flattened, and otterlike head, and his enormous paws, the former evidently adapted to his aquatic habits, the latter to his long journeys over yielding snows, distinguish this monarch of the icebergs and sea shores of the north, from his brother of the

inland forests.

He is usually from four to five feet high, and from seven to eight feet long, but sometimes grows to be twelve or thirteen feet in length, and to weigh one thousand five hundred pounds. The skins of two enormous white bears killed by Barentz, measured, the one twelve, and the other thirteen feet.

After clearing the barren islands to which he resorts of the foxes and hares, and the coasts of the wolves and the common seal, this animal begins to traverse the vast plains. of polar ice in quest of prey. When his food here fails, as soon as he has reached the open sea he commits himself to its floating icebergs. Enormous masses of his domain gradually detach themselves around him, and tumble from a height of two or three hundred feet into the sea, with the roaring of thunder, and a commotion sufficient to agitate even that boisterHe keeps his post so long as he

ous ocean.

can maintain it, then commits himself to the waves, swimming for leagues, until he either reaches another shore or another iceberg, or sinks exhausted by famine and fatigue. Near the east coast of Greenland, according to Captain Scoresby, the polar bears have been seen on the ice in such numbers as to look like flocks of sheep on a common.

The white bears, when in quest of prey, will often attack the arctic walrus, or seahorse, which makes an obstinate defence with its long tusks, and sometimes proves victorious. They are seen in droves in Greenland, allured by the smell of seal's flesh, and sometimes they will surround the dwellings of the natives and attempt to break in. The smoke of burnt feathers is said to be the most effective means of repelling the invaders.

White bears are sometimes found in Iceland, whither they are supposed to float upon the ice from the opposite coast of Greenland,

Hungry with the voyage, they scruple not to attack man himself; but Horrebow relates that the natives are always able to escape their fury by throwing down something to amuse them. "A glove," he says, "is very proper for this purpose; for the bear will not stir till he has turned every finger of it inside out; and, as these animals are not very dexterous with their paws, this operation takes up some time, which affords the man opportunity to make off."

The polar bear frequently displays tremendous fierceness. Barentz, in his voyage in search of a north-west passage to China, had fatal evidence of the ferocity of these animals in Nova Zembla, where they attacked his men, seizing them in their mouths, carrying them off with the utmost ease, and devouring them even in sight of their comrades.

Bewick relates a remarkable instance of the ferocity of the arctic bear. The crew of