throughout tlie wooded parts of the North American con tinent, whence it is being gradually driven to make room for man. It is similar in size to the Brown Bear, but its fur is of a soft even texture, and of a shining black colour, to which it owes its commercial value. At the beginning of the present century Black Bears were killed in enormous numbers for their furs, which at that time were highly valued, In 1803 the skins imported into England numbered 25,000, but the imports have since decreased to one-half of that number They are chiefly used for military accoutrements. This is a timid animal, feeding almost solely on fruits, and lying dormant during winter, at which period it is most frequently killed. It is an object of superstitious reverence to the Indians, who never kill it without apologizing and deploring the necessity which impels them to do so.
The Grizzly Bear (Ursus ferox) approaches the Polar Bear in size, while it exceeds that, and all other American mammals, in ferocity of disposition and in muscular strength. It is said to attack the bison, and has been known to carry off a carcase weighing 1000 ft) for a con siderable distance to its den, there to devour it at leisure. It also eats fruit and other vegetables. Its fur is usually of a yellowish brown colour, coarse and grizzled, and of little value commercially, while its flesh, unlike that of other bears, is uneatable even by the Indians. It is found in greatest abundance on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The Syrian Bear (Ursus syriacus) occurs on Mount Lebanon and throughout Syria, and is probably the species mentioned in Scripture as having destroyed the " forty-and-two children" who mocked Elisha. It is of a dirty yellowish colour, and feeds mainly on vegetables. The Bruang or Malayan Bear (Hdarctos malayanus) is of a jet black colour, with a white semilunar mark on the chest, and attains a length of 4^ feet. Its food consists almost solely of vegetables and honey, but the latter is its favourite food, the extreme length and pliability of the tongue enabling it to scoop out the honey-combs from the hollows of trees. It is found in the Malay Peninsula and Islands, and is readily tamed.
(3.) Honey bears are distinguished from the other groups by the absence of two upper incisors, and the very extensile character of the lips. Of these there is but one species, the Sloth or Honey Bear (Melursus labiatus). This animal, from its striking outward resemblance to a sloth, was, when first brought to this country, described as a species of Brady- pus. It is about the size of the Brown Bear, is covered with long, black hair, and is of extremely uncouth aspect. It inhabits the mountainous regions of India, is readily tamed, and is the bear usually exhibited by the Hindoo jugglers. It feeds on fruits, honey, and white ants. Fossil remains of extinct bears first occur in strata of the Pliocene age. Those of the Great Cave Bear( Ursus spelccus), found abundantly in certain caverns of Central Europe and Asia, show that it must have exceeded in size the Polar Bear of the present day. Its remains are also found in similar situations in Britain associated with those of an allied species ( Ursus priscus).
BEAR LAKE, Great, an extensive sheet of fresh water in the north-west of Canada, between 65 and 67 N. lat., and 117 and 123 W. long. It is of a very irregular shape, has an estimated area of 14,000 square miles, and is upwards of 200 feet above the sea. The Bear Lake River carries its waters into the Mackenzie River.
BEARD. The tradition that Adam was created with a beard (which may be described as bushy rather than flowing), is recorded on ancient monuments, and especially on an antique sarcophagus, which is one of the ornaments of the Vatican. The Jews, with the Orientals generally, seem to have accepted the tradition for a law. The beard was a cherished and a sacred thing. Israel brought it safe out of the bondage of universally shaven Egypt, and the beard was the outward and visible sign of a true man. To rudely touch his beard was to cruelly assail his dignity. Children and other kinsfolk might gently touch it as a sign of love ; a fugitive might reverentially raise his hand to it when praying for succour ; and he who put his hand on his own beard and swore by it bound himself by the most solemn of oaths, to violate which would render him infamous among his fellow-men. To touch the beard in the allegiance of love established peace and trustfulness between the two parties. When Joab went in to Amasa he took the beard of the latter to kiss him, saying the while, " Art thou in health, my brother V Therefore it was that Amasa took no heed of the sword in Joab s hand, which Joab at once thrust beneath the other s fifth rib. The Scriptures abound with examples of how the beard and its treatment interpreted the feelings, the joy, the sorrow, the pride, or the despondency of the wearer.
Although the Jews carried their beards with them from their bondage in Egypt, the Egyptians were not at all insensible of the significance of that appendage. They did not despise the type of manhood. Accordingly, on days of high festival they wore false beards, as assertions of their dignity in the scheme of creation, and they repre sented their male deities with beards " tip-tilted " at the ends. The general reader having laudable curiosity on this matter may be safely referred to the pages of Hero dotus, a writer who has much to say pertinently to the subject, and who, after being maligned as the second father of lies, is now praised for his modt ;"y, and relied on for his trustworthiness.
most come in contact with Europeans, have a good deal fallen away from old conservative ideas respecting the beard. Once, this glorious excrescence, as it was held to be, was made, by the followers of Islam, a help to salva tion. The hairs which came from it in combing were preserved, broken in two, and then buried. The breaking was a sort of stipulation with some angel who was supposed to be on the watch, and who would look to the safe passage of the consigners of the treasure into the paradise of never-failing sherbet and ever-blooming houris. The first sultau who broke through the orthodox oppression of beardedness was Selim I. (1512-20). This act was a violent shock to the whole body of the faithful, and especially of the Mufti. The very highest priest alone could dare to remonstrate with so absolute a monarch. Selim put aside the remonstrance with a joke. " I have cut off my beard," he said, "in order that my vizier may have nothing to lead me by!" But a crafty minister can find on the face of the most beardless and cruel of despots wherewithal to lead him in the way the minister would have him go. Still, the fact that the Prophet never let razor reap a harvest on his chin, for possession of the hairy produce of which all Islam would have fought with affectionate fury, long made, and still makes, the beard a part of religion. The sultan and the shah, chiefs of the two parties in their church, have pretty fair apologies for beards ; but this is far below the bearded glories of the days before the Prophet, when the kings of Persia tied up their bearded plaits with gold thread, and the princes of Nineveh went abroad with beards curled and oiled, like the Assyrian bulls themselves. It has been said that in Asia wars have been proclaimed on alleged grievances connected with sharing. Tartars and Persians, and Chinese and Tartars, are reported to have resorted to sanguinary arbi tration on the question of clipping or shaving. Probably they who declared the war were as clever in finding a pretext as the more civilized aggressors of much later days.
