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$Unique_ID{QAD00153}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Polar Bear; White Bear}
$Subject{Polar Bear; White Bear; Ursus; Maritimus}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America: Volume II}
$Volume{Vol. 2:281-292}
$Genus{Ursus}
$Species{Maritimus}
$Common_Name{Polar Bear; White Bear}
$Log{
Plate XCI*00153P1.scf
Genus*00152.txt}
Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992
A U D U B O N ' S M A M M A L S
By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.
AND
The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.
-------------------------------------------
VOL. II.
--------------------------------
URSUS MARITIMUS.--Linn.
POLAR BEAR.--WHITE BEAR.
PLATE XCI.--Male.
U. Capite elongate; cranio applanato; collo longo; pilis longis mollibus,
albis.
CHARACTERS.
Head, elongated; skull, flat; neck, long; hair, long, soft, and white
SYNONYMES.
WHITE BEAR. Marten's Spitz. Trans., p. 107. An. 1675.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Lin. Syst.
URSUS ALBUS. Brisson, Regne, an. p. 260.
L'OURS BLANC. Buffon, vol. 15, p. 128. An. 1767.
URSUS MARINUS. Pallas, vol. 3, p. 69.
POLAR BEAR. Penn. Arct. Zool., p. 53.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Parry's 1st voyage, Supp., p. 183.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Franklin's 1st voyage, p. 648.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Parry's 2nd voyage, Appendix, p. 288.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Richardson, Fauna, p. 30.
URSUS MARITIMUS. Scoresby's Account of the Arctic Regions.
DESCRIPTION.
Head and muzzle narrow, prolonged on a straight line with the fore head,
which is flattened; snout, naked; ears, short; neck, long; body, long in
proportion to its height; soles of the hind feet equal to one-sixth of the
length of the body; hair, rigid, compact and long on the body and limbs, is from
two to three inches in length, with a small quantity of fine and woolly hair
next the skin. The whole animal wears the appearance of great strength without
much agility.
COLOUR.
The naked extremity of the snout, the tongue, margins of the eyelids, and
the claws, are black; lips, purplish black; eyes, dark-brown; interior of the
mouth pale violet. The hairs on every part of the body are of a yellowish-white
colour.
DIMENSIONS.
Specimen in the Charleston Museum:--
Feet Inches.
Head and body,. . . . . . . . . . 6 9
Tail, (vertebrae), . . . . . . . . 10
Tail to end of hair,. . . . . . . . 1 1
Height of ear,. . . . . . . . . . 3 3/4
Height from shoulder, . . . . . . . 3 3
Girth around the body, . . . . . . . 6 3
Girth around the hind leg,. . . . . . 1 7
Length of canine teeth,. . . . . . . 1 3/8
Length of incisors, . . . . . . . . 0 3/4
We append the following measurements taken from specimens in the flesh, by
Capt. J. C. Ross, R.N., F.R.S., &c.:--
MALE. FEMALE.
Inches. Inches.
Length from snout to end of tail, . . 94 78
Snout to shoulder, . . . . . . . 33.5 26.3
Snout to occiput, . . . . . . . 18.4 15.6
Circumference before the eyes, . . . 20.4 15.8
At broadest part of the head, . . . 32.2 28
At largest part of the abdomen,. . . 65.2 57.6
Length of alimentary canal. . . . . 61 52
Weight,. . . . . . . . . . . 900lbs. 700lbs.
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 extended 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 described, 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 in 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, 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 have met with no account
of any Polar Bear, killed of late years, which exceeded nine feet in length, or
four feet and a-half in height. It is possible that larger individuals may be
occasionally found: but the greatness of the dimensions attributed to them by
the older voyagers has, I doubt not, originated in the skin having been measured
after being much stretched in the process of flaying."
The great power of the Polar Bear is portrayed in the account of a
disastrous accident which befel the crew of BARENTZ's vessel on his second
voyage to Waigat's Straits. "On the 6th of September, 1594, some sailors landed
to search for a certain sort of stone, a species of diamond. During this
search, two of the seamen lay down to sleep by one another, and a White Bear,
very lean, approaching softly, seized one of them by the nape of the neck. The
poor man, not knowing what it was, cried out "who has seized me thus behind?" on
which his companion, raising his head, said, "Holloa, mate, it is a Bear," and
immediately ran away. The Bear having dreadfully mangled the unfortunate man's
head, sucked the blood. The rest of the persons who were on shore, to the
number of twenty, immediately ran with their match-locks and pikes, and found
the Bear devouring the body; on seeing them, he ran upon them, and carrying
another man away, tore him to pieces. This second misadventure so terrified
them that they all fled. They advanced again, however, with a reinforcement,
and the two pilots having fired three times without hitting the animal, the
purser approached a little nearer, and shot the Bear in the head, close by the
eye. This did not cause him to quit his prey, for, holding the body, which he
was devouring, always by the neck, he carried it away as yet quite entire.