1853.] CURIOUS PASTIME OF A SHE-BEAR. 2U3 



tance to where he was, when I fired : this I found, to my 

 surprise, to be one hundred and forty-six yards. Still, 

 if the guns had been good, our game would have been 

 secured, the dogs fed, and we should have saved very 

 valuable fuel. The party returned unsuccessful. Punch 

 alone would not give up ; * his tongue was heard long 

 after ; and when it ceased, I felt very much afraid that 

 he would tire himself and become an easy victim : but 

 bears will run, and are not very anxious to face a dog. 



We pushed on for Tongue Point, and there pitched. 

 More bears ! I was busy on the Point with the instru- 

 ment, watching for an object, when I noticed a lady and 

 her cub, amusing themselves, as I imagined, at a game 

 of romps, but the old lady was evidently the more ex- 

 cited. Possibly no such opportunity has before been 

 afforded to any naturalist of witnessing quietly the hu- 

 mours or habits of these animals. At first the motions 

 of the mother appeared to me as ridiculously absurd, 

 or as if she was teaching her cub to perform a summer- 

 set, or something nearly approaching it : but the cub 

 evinced no interest, no participation in the sport indeed 

 moved off and lay dowu,-apparently to sleep. The antics 

 too of the mother were too distant from the cub to prove 

 instructive. I will endeavour to convey my impression 

 of the exhibition, as viewed through the telescope, at a 

 distance of a quarter of a mile, as well as the object on 

 which she appeared intent, It must first be borne in 

 mind that a bear of such dimensions as that before me 

 would weigh about six and a half or seven hundred- 



* Punch is one of the Cape York dogs, now at the Zoological Gar- 

 dens : the bravest of his species. 



