URSUS, the BEAR; a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order of feræ. There are six fore-teeth in the upper jaw, alternately hollow in the inside, and six in the under jaw, the two lateral ones being labated. The dog-teeth are solitary and conical; the eyes are furnished with a nictitating membrane; the nose is prominent; and there is a crooked bone in the penis. There are five species, viz.
1. The ursus cauda abrupta, has strong, thick, and clumsy limbs; very short tail; large feet; body covered with very long and shaggy hair, various in its colour: It inhabits the north parts of Europe and Asia; the Alps of Switzerland, and Dauphine; Japan and Ceylon; North America and Peru. The brown bears are sometimes carnivorous, and will destroy cattle, and eat carrion; but their general food is roots, fruits, and vegetables: they will rob the fields of pease; and when they are ripe, pluck great quantities up, beat the pease out of the husks on some hard place, eat them, and carry off the straw: they will also, during winter, break into the farmer's yard, and make great havoc among his stock of oats; they are also particularly fond of honey. The bears of America are small and black, and confine themselves entirely to vegetables: they are remarkably greedy of maize and potatoes; and will even reject animal-food, though pressed by hunger: neither of these varieties
Ursus. will attack mankind, unless wounded, or when they have their young: they strike with their fore-feet like a cat; seldom or never use their mouths in fighting, but seizing the assailant with their paws, and pressing him against their breast, almost instantly squeeze him to death. The females after conception retire into the most secret places; lest, when they bring forth, the males should devour the young: it is affirmed, that out of the several hundred bears that are killed in America, during winter, (which is their breeding season), scarce a female is found among them; so impenetrable is their retreat during their pregnancy: they bring two, rarely three, young at a time: the cubs are deformed, but not a shapeless mass to be licked into shape, as the ancients pretended. The flesh of a bear in autumn, when they are excessively fat, by feeding on acorns, and other mast, is delicate food; and that of the cubs still finer; but the paws of the old bears are reckoned the most exquisite morsel; the fat white, and very sweet; the oil excellent for strains and old pains. The latter end of autumn, after they have fattened themselves to the greatest degree, the bears withdraw to their dens, where they continue for a great number of days in total inactivity, and abstinence from food, having no other nourishment than what they get by sucking their feet, where the fat lodges in great abundance: their retreats are either in cliffs of rocks, in the deepest recesses of the thickest woods, or in the hollows of ancient trees, which they ascend and descend with surprising agility: as they lay in no winter-provisions, they are in a certain space of time forced from their retreats by hunger, and come out extremely lean: multitudes are killed annually in America, for the sake of their flesh or skins; which last makes a considerable article of commerce.
2. The polar, or white bear, has a long head and neck; short round ears; great teeth; the hair long, soft, and white, tinged in some parts with yellow: growing to a vast size; the skins of some being 13 feet long.
This animal is confined to the coldest part of the globe; it has been found as far as navigators have penetrated northwards, above lat. 80. The frigid climes only seem adapted to its nature; for we do not learn from any authority that it is met with farther south than Newfoundland. Its bounds in respect to longitude are also very limited; being an animal unknown except on the shores of Hudson's Bay, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, on one side, and those of Nova Zembla on the other; for such as have appeared in other parts have been brought there involuntarily on floating islands of ice; so that the intermediate countries of Norway and Iceland are acquainted with them but by accident. We cannot trace them farther east than Nova Zembla; though the frozen sea, that is continued from thence as far as the land of Tschuktschi, that lies above Kamtschatka, is equally suited to their nature. The late histories of those countries are silent in respect to them.
During summer, the white bears are either resident on islands of ice, or passing from one to another: they swim admirably, and can continue that exercise six or seven leagues, and dive with great agility. They bring two young at a time: the affection between the parents and them is so strong, that they would die rather than desert one another. Their winter retreats are under the
snow, in which they form deep dens, supported by pillars of the same. They feed on fish, seals, and the carcasses of whales, and on human bodies, which they greedily tear up: they seem very fond of human blood; and are so fearless as to attack companies of armed men, and even to board small vessels. When on land, they live on birds and their eggs; and allured by the scent of seals flesh, often break into and plunder the houses of the Greenlanders: their greatest enemy in the brute creation is the morse, with whom they have terrible conflicts, but are generally worsted, the vast teeth of the former giving it a superiority. The flesh is white, and said to taste like mutton: the fat is melted for train-oil, and that of the feet used in medicine: but the liver is very unwholesome, as three of Barentz's sailors experienced, who fell dangerously ill on eating some of it boiled. One of this species was brought over to England a few years ago; it was very furious, almost always in motion, roared loud, and seemed very uneasy, except when cooled by having pailfuls of water poured on it.
3. The luscus, or wolverene, has a black sharp pointed visage; short rounded ears, almost hid in the hairs; the sides of a yellowish brown, which passes in form of a band quite over the hind-part of the back, above the tail; the legs are very strong, thick and short, of a deep black: the whole body is covered with very long and thick hair, which varies in colour according to the season. It inhabits Hudson's Bay and Canada, as far as the straits of Michilimakinac; is found under the name of the glutton in the north parts of Europe and Asia, being a native of the most rigorous climates.
It is a most voracious animal, and slow of foot; so is obliged to take its prey by surprise. In America it is called the beaver-eater, watching those animals as they come out of their houses, and sometimes breaks into their habitations, and devours them. It often lurks on trees, and falls on the quadrupeds that pass under; will fasten on the borse, elk, or stag, and continue eating a hole into its body, till the animal falls down with the pain; or else will tear out its eyes: no force can disengage it; yet sometimes the deer in their agony have been known to destroy it, by running their head violently against a tree. It devours the istis, or white fox; searches for the traps laid for the sables and other animals; and is often beforehand with the huntsmen, who sustain great losses by the glutton: authors have pretended that it feeds so voraciously, that at length it is in danger of bursting; and that it is obliged to ease itself of its load, by squeezing it out between two trees.
In a wild state, it is vastly fierce; a terror to both wolf and bear, which will not prey on it when they find it dead, perhaps on account of its being so very fetid, smelling like a pole-cat: it makes a strong resistance when attacked; will tear the stock from the gun, and pull the traps it is caught in to pieces. Notwithstanding this, it is capable of being tamed, and of learning several tricks; burrows, and has its den under ground. The skin is sold in Siberia for 4s. or 6s.; at Jakutsk for 12s.; and still dearer at Kamtschatka, where the women dress their hair with its white paws, which they esteem a great ornament. The fur is greatly esteemed in Europe: that of the north of Europe and Asia, whose skins are sometimes to be seen in the furriers shops, is much finer, blacker, and more glossy
than that of the wolverene, or American kind. The glutton has by some authors been confounded with the hyæna.
4. The lotor, or raccoon, has the upper part of the body covered with hair, ash-coloured at the root, whitish in the middle, and tipped with black; tail very bushy, annulated with black; toes black, and quite divided.—It inhabits the warm and temperate parts of America; is found also in the mountains of Jamaica, and in the isles of Maria, between the south point of California and Cape Corientes, in the South Sea: is easily made tame, very good-natured and sportive; bus as unlucky as a monkey. It is almost always in motion; and very inquisitive, examining every thing with its paws. It makes use of them as hands; sits up to eat; is extremely fond of sweet things, and strong liquors, and will get excessively drunk. It has all the cunning of a fox; and is very destructive to poultry; but will eat all sorts of fruits, green corn, &c. At low water it feeds much on oysters, and will watch their opening, and with its paw snatch out the fish; it sometimes is caught in the shell, and kept there till drowned by the coming in of the tide: it is also fond of crabs. It climbs very nimbly up trees. It is hunted for its skin; the fur next to that of the beaver for making hats.
5. The meles, or common badger, is an animal of a very clumsy make, with short thick legs, long claws on the fore-feet, and a fetid white matter exuding from the orifice below the tail. It inhabits most parts of Europe, as far north as Norway and Russia, and the step or desert beyond Orenburgh, in the Russian Asiatic dominions, north of the Caspian Sea: inhabits also China, and is often found in the butchers shops in Pekin, the Chinese being fond of them; but a scarce animal in most countries. It seldom appears in the day; confines itself much to its hole: is indolent and sleepy; generally very fat: feeds by night; eats roots, fruits, grass, insects, and frogs; but is not carnivorous: it runs slowly; when overtaken, it comes to bay, and defends itself vigorously; its bite is dangerous. It burrows under ground; makes several apartments, but forms only one entrance from the surface. It is hunted during night for the skin, which serves for pistol-furniture; the hairs for making brushes to soften the shades in painting. Its flesh makes good bacon.