We have now arrived at the closing group of the true Carnivora; a group which, although less sanguinary in its habits than almost any of those which we have hitherto had occasion to notice, and endowed by nature with a capacity of subsisting entirely on vegetable substances, comprehends nevertheless, among the closely allied species of which it is composed, not merely the largest, but even some of the most formidable, of the carnivorous Mammalia.
Both in outward shape and internal characters, these clumsy, sluggish, and uncouth animals offer a perfect contrast to the light, active, and elegant forms of the tribe with which we commenced our series. Instead of the compressed and lengthened body, with its soft, sleek, and variegated covering, and the long and graceful tail by which it is terminated, we have a broad, awkward, and thickset figure, covered with a rough, shaggy, and unattractive fur, and ending in a scarcely visible appendage, serving neither for ornament nor use. The difference in gait and motion is as remarkable as that of shape; for while the one glides gently along, as it were on tiptoe, or bounds onwards with the velocity of thought, the other appears to be oppressed by the weight of his ponderous and unwieldy bulk, and supporting himself on the full expansion of his dilated paws, scarcely moves without the semblance of an effort. The short and rounded jaws of the cats, with their close and regular series of powerful cutting and lacerating teeth, and their rough and rasplike tongue, are supplied by a broad and lengthened snout, teeth of a character totally different in almost every essential point, and a soft, smooth, and extensible tongue. The claws too, which in the cats are strongly curved, exceedingly sharp at their edges, tapering gradually to a fine point, and capable of being entirely retracted within their sheaths, are here indeed of great power, and sometimes even considerably arched, but rounded in their surfaces, more or less blunted at their extremities, and constantly protruded to their full extent. In this manner might the contrast be pursued through almost every organ; but our limits warn us that we must at once proceed to the enumeration of the essential characters which combine the Bears into a well marked group.