Useful Knowledge: Volume 3. Animals / Or, a familiar account of the various productions of nature

by William Bingley

60. The COMMON BEAR (Ursus arctos, Fig. 5) is a heavy looking quadruped of large size, which has a prominent snout, a short tail, treads on the whole sole of its foot; and is covered with shaggy blackish hair.

It is found in marshy woods of the northern parts of Europe and Asia, and is likewise found in Egypt, Barbary, and India.

The hunting of bears is an extremely important pursuit to the inhabitants of nearly all the countries in which they are found; and in many parts of the world it constitutes their principal and most profitable employ. The skins are made into beds, covertures, caps, and gloves. Of all coarse furs these are the most valuable; and, when good, a light and black bear's skin is one of the most comfortable, at the same time one of the most costly articles in the winter wardrobe of a man of fashion at Petersburgh or Moscow. In England bears' skins are used for the hammer-cloths of carriages, for pistol-holsters, and other purposes. The leather prepared from bears' skins is made into harness for carriages, and is used for all the purposes of strong leather.

Nearly every part of the bear is of use. Its flesh is a savoury and excellent food, somewhat resembling pork: and that of the paws is considered a delicacy in Russia, even at the imperial table. The hams are salted, dried, and exported to other parts of Europe. The flesh of young bears is as much in request in some parts of Russia as that of lamb is with us.

Bears' fat is frequently employed as a remedy for tumours, rheumatism, and other complaints. An oil prepared from it is adopted as a means of making the hair grow. This fat is likewise used by the Russians and Kamtschadales with their food, and is esteemed as good as the best olive-oil. The intestines, when cleansed and properly scraped, are worn by the females of Kamtschatka, as masks to preserve their faces from the effects of the sun, the rays of which, being reflected from the snow, are found to blacken the skin; but by this means they are enabled to preserve a fair complexion. These intestines are also used instead of glass for windows. In Kamschatka the shoulder-blade bones of bears are converted into sickles for the cutting of grass.

The modes in which bears are caught or killed are too numerous to be described in this place. These animals chiefly frequent the most retired parts of forests; and their habitations are dens formed beneath the surface of the ground, in which they pass the winter in a state of repose and abstinence. In some countries, where they are suffered to live without much molestation, they are quiet and inoffensive animals; but in others they are extremely surly and ferocious.

61. The WHITE or POLAR PEAR (Ursus maritimus) is a quadruped of large size, sometimes measuring near twelve feet in length, and covered with long, coarse, and shaggy white hair; the head and neck much longer in proportion than those of the common bear, and the tail short.

The sea-shores of Greenland, and other countries within the arctic circle, as well as the immense islands of ice which abound in the Frozen Ocean, are frequented by great numbers of these animals.

The uses of the white bear are chiefly confined to the skin, the flesh, and the fat. Of these the skin, which is perhaps the most valuable part, is employed for beds, shoes, boots, and, in various ways, as leather. The flesh is eaten by the Greenlanders and the inhabitants of other northern countries, and is described to be as excellent as mutton, though this must be very doubtful when we consider the food on which these animals subsist. The fat is melted and employed instead of oil; that of the paws is used in medicine, for anointing rheumatic and paralytic limbs, and was formerly esteemed a sovereign remedy in these diseases. Of the tendons, when split into slender filaments, the Greenlanders make thread to sew with.

White bears are killed with spears; and are sometimes hunted with dogs, or killed with guns. They are savage, ferocious, and powerful animals; and so great is their activity in the water, that they are frequently known to swim over tracts of sea, six or seven leagues, from one island or shore to another.