Jax. 1, 1S67.] 



HAKDWICKB'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



AN INTERESTING EVENT. 



"On the 24th day of November, 1866, at the Zoological 

 Gardens, Regent's Park, London, the wife of Polar Bear, Esq., 

 of a son and daughter." 



fTlEE receipt of this important intelligence induced 

 -*- me to start at once from my residence, situate in 

 the southern part of the metropolis, for the " Zoo." 

 — Why do I employ the abbreviation ? Because the 

 heaviest of heavy swells always say they are going 

 to "do the Zoo.," and I like to follow the example 

 of my betters. It may be as well to state, that I 

 possess a lawful right and privilege to append three 

 important letters to my otherwise unobtrusive name. 

 E.Z.S. gives to it an outward show of importance, 

 not to be lightly estimated. I deem it expedient to 

 state this fact, because it will in some measure 

 account for my anxiety to see the twins, to which I 

 have a sort of paternal right. More than this I 

 cannot visit the nursery of a Lady Polar-bear, in her 

 home amidst the bergs and floes, so I do the next 

 best thing within my reach, which is to get a peep 

 at the infant bruins in their snug room at the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, a plan by the way in every respect 

 much safer and immeasurably more comfortable. 



As very few persons are admitted to the domestic 

 sanctuary wherein the babies of Madam Bear are 

 deposited, I am induced to believe there are many 

 readers of Science Gossip, who will feel interested 

 in hearing about them. Assuming this desire for 

 information concerning bear babies to exist, — and I 

 see no reason why Polar bears' infants should not 

 obtain a share of public attention, — I shall commence 

 by stating that having discovered Mr. Bartlett, the 

 intelligent superintendent, the next item in the pro- 

 gramme was to proceed to a small room behind the 

 Aquarium House. The door being securely locked 

 we had to await the advent of the keeper, who, as 

 he let me pass in, confidentially whispered into my 

 ear, " they (meaning the infant bears) are a sleeping 

 quite comfortable ; " and so they were, nevertheless 

 there was nothing cherub like about the slumberers, 

 neither did I feel at all impressed with any very 

 exalted ideas of the beauty of infantile bruins. 

 Gazing upon the twain, I could recall nothing to 

 my remembrance to which they bore so apt a 

 similitude as kittens, when, dead and dripping 

 wet, these slaughtered innocents are dragged from 

 out the pail in which they have been drowned. 

 Before giving a more detailed description of the 

 young bears, I had better put the reader in posses- 

 sion of a few links in their brief history. When 

 Madam Bear was observed to be ill, she was con- 

 tinually watched by a keeper equipped with a 

 scraper affixed to a long handle, and immediately 

 each infant appeared in the world it was scraped out 

 of the den, rolled in flannel, and carried as rapidly as 

 possible to he house I am now visiting. Here a small 

 rough-haiied terrier was in waiting to become their 



foster-mother; the terrier had just produced a litter 

 of pups, all of winch, excepting one, were removed 

 from her. She took kindly to the strange children, 

 although it was very evident her instincts were 

 sorely tried to comprehend the change. The Mamma 

 Bear is a badly disposed, unnatural old parent ; twice 

 before she has had cubs whilst a resident in the 

 Gardens, and on both occasions they were lost. I am 

 told when her children become fat and substantial 

 she devours them. In order to frustrate such Sa- 

 turnine propensities this time, the cubs are to be 

 reared, if possible, by a less savage mother. 



Now the reader will the better comprehend how it 

 came about that I saw on entering the room a terrier, 

 small in size, coiled up in a box before the fire, and 

 nestling close to her, two young white bears and a 

 black puppy. What completely "staggered me, was 

 the tiny size of the bear-cubs. The terrier was a 

 remarkably small one, and her pup more than 

 usually diminutive, even for that class of mongrel ; 

 nevertheless, the puppy was considerably larger 

 than either of the cubs, notwithstanding the age of 

 each was about the same. I measured the cubs, 

 and the extreme length from the nose to the root of 

 the tail was barely nine inches, whereas the mother 

 is over six feet ; and, roughly speaking, the young 

 bears would not weigh more than a few ounces, 

 whilst the parent would turn the scale at seven 

 hundred weight ; there are instances recorded of 

 Polar bears weighing sixteen hundred pounds. In 

 colour the infants were of a pinkish white, the pink 

 cast being attributable to the thinness of the hair 

 permitting the skin to show through, the ears were 

 quite bare, and gave one the idea of being two fleshy 

 teats. The only thing about these quaint little crea- 

 tures that in the remotest degree suggested theirbear 

 descent was, that all four feet were armed with well 

 developed claws, and the foot itself had the wide 

 flat look of that belonging to a Plantigrade animal. 

 The eyes firmly closed, will not be opened, if 

 the creatures live, for fifteen days. Not the least 

 singular part of these singular little cubs was 

 discoverable in the construction of their mouths, 

 the gape of which for such small animals appeared to 

 be preposterous, and the tongue was doubled in at 

 the edges, so as to form a kind of tube, in which the 

 teat lay during the act of sucking. Like babies 

 higher in the scale of creation, they grew cross and 

 clamorous if their tiny foster-mother mt>ved, or in 

 any way disturbed them ; and it seemed to me these 

 baby bruins proved, even at this early stage of their 

 existence, that " cross as a bear " is an adage having 

 in it a good slice of truth, and I shall adopt it for 

 the future with a firmer confidence in the aptness 

 of its application to un-amiable human kind from 

 babies upwards, than I have been wont to do hereto- 

 fore. The cusious noise the little bears make sorely 

 bothers the terrier, and in some degree frightens 

 her into the bargain ; what she thinks about it is 



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