252

THE BROWN BEAR.

The bear-skin is of the greatest value to the Arctic tribes. They dress it by pinning it down on the snow and leaving it to freeze, after which the fat is scraped off. It is then hung up to dry in the intense frost, and with a little scraping it becomes perfectly supple, both skin and hair being beautifully white. The Greenland Company get from forty to sixty white bear-skins annually.

The flesh is eaten by the Esquimaux and the Danes in Greenland, and when young, and cooked after the manner of beef steaks, is by no means to be despised, although rather insipid. The fat, however, ought to be avoided, as unpleasant to the palate. Dr. Scoresby tells us that the muscular fat of the bear is well flavoured and savoury. "I once," he adds, "treated my surgeon to a dinner of bear's ham, and he did not know, for above a month afterwards, but that it was beef steak. The liver is very unwholesome." Other arctic voyagers consider it exceedingly coarse. The Russian sailors who wintered at Spitzbergen found it to be much more agreeable to the taste than the flesh of the reindeer.

Sir John Richardson well observes, in his "Fauna BorealiAmericana," that when people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat meat becomes so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed and even oily fat, without nausea. Our arctic seamen relish the paws of the bear, and the Esquimaux prefer its flesh at all times to that of the seal. Instances are recorded of the liver of the polar bear having poisoned people.

The BROWN BEAR (Ursus arctos), although at one time common in many parts of Europe, is now restricted to a few secluded valleys in the Alps, Pyrenees, and mountains of Norway and Lapland. The dark-coloured race, long considered a distinct species, under the name of the European black bear, together with the barren-ground bear of North America, are now included among the varieties of Ursus arctos. They are hunted for their

THE ISABELLA BEAR.

253

skin and fat. The distribution of the brown bear is more extensive than any of the family. In Asia it inhabits Siberia and the Altai as far westward as Japan; when the Altai is crossed, and the great Himalayan chain examined, there is found another brown bear, which has been named the Isabella bear, from the prevailing light fulvous colour of the fur.

As to the distinction between the Ursus arctos and the Isabella coloured bear of the Himalaya, the difference rests only in the colouring of the tips of the hair, and that is not always a sure criterion. No doubt the majority of the Isabella bears have the tips of the hairs brownish white, but brown is the fundamental colour. Some individuals, especially old males, are almost marone, whilst others vary from brown to brownish yellow, and are a dirty white; hence travellers speak of the "White and Brown bears of Cashmere": it is evident, however, that

254

THE THIBET BEAR.

neither age nor sex determines the colour with any degree of

accuracy.

The Isabella bear is found on the mountains of Armenia, where it has long passed under the name of the Syrian bear, and is perhaps the animal referred to in the Bible. It is not rare on the Caucasus and high ranges of Persia, Affghanistan, and Himalaya, at least as far eastwards as Nepaul and probably much farther.

The winter's coat is shed about midsummer, when the old hair and under wool, called peshmena, hang in matted masses on its sides. The bear's peshmena is not attained until autumn, and after the new coat has gained considerable length. It is analogous to that of the wild and tame goats and sheep of Thibet, and more or less pervades all the quadrupeds of the high and snowy ranges. The peshmena of the ibex is softer than that of the tame goat of Thibet. Its fur is thick and long in winter, but does not contain much under wool.

The Thibet bear (Ursus tibetanus) is a native of the lower Himalayan ranges, and is said to be found in Persia, Affghanistan and Northern China. There is a white mark on the chest shaped like the letter Y, the two legs proceeding a short distance up the side of the shoulders. Towards the end of October, after this bear has fed on fruits and grain, like its congener, it becomes very fat. The native hunters state that the kidney fat is useless as an article of commerce on account of being tainted with the smell of the animal's urine. They accordingly preserve only the external adipose on the loins and inside of the thighs.

THE EUROPEAN BADGER (Meles Taxus) differs totally from the American one in many points, especially in its dark-coloured, much coarser, and shorter fur.

The skin with the hair on being impervious to rain, used to be employed in France to cover trunks, the collars of draught horses, and their harness. The skins were also formerly made into pouches by the Highlanders. From the wiry nature of the hair it

THE AMERICAN BADGER.

255

is extensively used for the manufacture of superior kinds of shaving brushes and artists' pencils. It is preferred in China to pigs' bristles. Brushes made of badgers' hair are used by painters in softening the colours employed in imitating wood. The flesh is reckoned a delicacy in Italy, France and China, and may be cured like hams and bacon.

THE AMERICAN BADGER (Meles [Taxidia] Labradoria, Sabine). The fur of this animal is very soft and fine, and about three and a

half inches long on the back, of a purplish brown colour from the roots upwards, variegated with narrow black rings near its summit, and tipped with white, producing a pleasant and somewhat mottled or hoary grey colour, but exhibiting no brown tints when the fur lies smooth.

In the eleven years ending with 1866, the average annual import of these skins by the Hudson's Bay Company was from 1,000 to 1,700. The flesh is said to be not inferior to that of the bear, to which it is closely allied in structure.

CHAPTER IX.

CARNIVOROUS MAMMALS--continued.

The last chapter having nearly exhausted the description of the furbearing animals of commerce there remain but a few more to be spoken of; these include the Wolverine or Glutton, the Skunk, the Fitch or common Polecat, the Martens or Weasels, including the Ermine, Mink, Fisher, and Sable; the common Otter, American Otter, and Sea Otter; we then pass on to the varieties of Seal, and the description and statistics of this important fishery carried on for the skins and oil of the animals.

WOLVERINE, OR GLUTTON (Gulo luscus, Sabine).-This North American animal is nearly the size of our badger. It ranges from 75° to 42° N. It has two distinct kinds of hair, the inner fur being soft and about an inch long, the intermixed hairs are rigid, and about four inches long. Its fur is of a deep brown colour, passing in the depth of winter almost into black. The imports through the Hudson's Bay Company average about 1,000 to 1,500 skins a year. It is much used for muffs and sleigh robes; a small number are obtained in Alaska.

THE AMERICAN POLECAT (Mephitis Americana, Sabine), or SKUNK as it is invariably called in that country, has a long, soft, black fur. It can discharge, when molested, a fluid from a small bag, near the root of the tail, which emits one of the most powerful stenches in nature, that produces instant nausea. The odour has some resemblance to that of garlic, although much more disagreeable. Owing to the repugnant smell which the animal possesses, and which the fur, even when it has passed through the dressing process retains, it was long considered of small commercial value. Continued experiments, however, surmounted the difficulty; the two stripes of white coarse hair down the back are