I have since received a drawing of a White Bear[AC], from Mr. Collinson,
and if that be perfect, the land and sea-bears are certainly distinct
species, the difference in the length of their heads being sufficient
to constitute them such. By this drawing it also appears that the feet
of the sea-bear are formed like those of dogs, and other carnivorous
animals, whereas those of the land-bear are shaped like the human
hand. From the assertion of several travellers we also understand, that
the former of these bears are much larger than the latter; Gerard de
Veira says, that the skin of one which he killed measured twenty-three
feet in length, which is three times the length of a common bear. In
the collection of Voyages to the North it is stated that these bears
are larger and more ferocious than those of our parts; but in the same
work it is said, that although they are of a different shape, their
heads and necks being much longer, and their bodies more slender, yet
they are nearly of the same size with the others.
[Footnote AC: For which see vol. vi. page 270, of this Edition.]
It is generally admitted by travellers that the heads of these
sea-bears are so hard that a blow which would fell an ox does not stun
them, and that their voice is more like the barking of a dog than that
of a common bear. Robert Lade says, that he killed two sea-bears near
the river Rupper of a prodigious size, which were so ferocious that
they attacked the hunters, wounded two Englishmen, and killed several
savages. It is mentioned in the third Dutch Voyage to the North, that a
sea-bear was killed by the sailors on the coast of Nova Zembla, whose
skin was thirteen feet long. From all which I am inclined to believe
that this animal, which has been so frequently distinguished for its
ferocity, is a much larger species than the common bear.