HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1867. 



more than I can tell, but this I know, she dislikes 

 to hear them, and I feel sure it is often an open 

 question with mamma-terrier whether to abandon or 

 bite the ' noisy chits is the better plan of pro- 

 ceeding. 



Why the cubs of the Bear family (for the same 

 fact holds good in its application to the entire 

 race as it does to the Polar Bear) should be so 

 remarkably diminutive in proportion to the parent 

 is a matter worthy of serious consideration. I can- 

 not help thinking the remarkably small size of the 

 cubs accounts for the fact, and fact I know from 

 long experience it is, viz., that hunters very rarely 

 kill a female bear in cub. Now it occurs to 

 me, having seen these infant Polars, that female 

 bears may be frequently killed in this interesting 

 condition, and the embryo be so small as to escape 

 a hunter's observation ; and at or near to the time 

 of birth the female bear hides, and does not re- 

 appear until from two to three months after the 

 cubs are born, during which time she neither eats 

 nor drinks, but suckles her cubs whilst in a quasi- 

 state of hybernation. She lives during that period 

 upon the material supplied her by the absorption of 

 her own fat and tissues. 



The habits of the Polar Bear, apart from its 

 aquatic and carnivorous propensities, differ entirely 

 from those of the North American, Brown, and 

 Black Bears. The latter hybemate during the 

 colder months of winter ; the former, although 

 subject to perpetual Arctic cold, never does. The 

 female Polar Bear when in cub retires about 

 the month of November, and hides in a cave, 

 or in some secure retreat deep beneath the snow ; 

 in December, so say the Esquimaux, she brings 

 forth two cubs. This, as far as dates are concerned, 

 tallies nearly with the birth I have just recorded in 

 the Zoological Gardens. Thus concealed, and with- 

 out tasting food of any description, the Mamma 

 Bear carries on her maternal duties until the month 

 of April in the year following ; she then quits her 

 nursery, thin, savage, and terribly exhausted, but 

 running at her heels are two cubs, by this time as 

 large as good-sized dogs. These, her children, she 

 teaches to feed on seal and fish, to swim, to hunt, 

 and to become fitted for and presentable to the best 

 society in bear-land. This duty accomplished, the 

 mother drives them off to live by their own claws 

 and teeth as best they can. 



Papa Polar Bear, during the retirement of his 

 •srife, leads that disreputable, roaming, ne'er-do-well 

 sort of life the lord of creation is always accused 

 of indulging in— whether deservedly or not, let him 

 so stigmatised answer— when cast loose upon the 

 world, freed from the protecting guidance of the 

 fair. He keeps no regular hours, sleeps anywhere, 

 dines when it suits his humour, flirts with un- 

 married lady Polars, indulges in a fight now and 

 again, just, as the Hibernian says, to keep his hand 



in, and altogether does the unbridled bachelor — 

 mind, I do not say husband ; I tremble to think 

 what might befall me were I to commit myself to 

 so rash a statement. 



Now if these tiny bears came into the world 

 larger and more fully developed, would it not 

 probably happen that, with erratic and disobedient 

 habits, always inherent in young animals, they 

 would incautiously quit their nursery too soon, and 

 get starved to death by cold and hunger ? More than 

 this, the most pressing desire for food would hardly 

 tempt the female bear to quit them whilst in a help- 

 less condition ; but if she found her cubs could 

 follow her before the snow was gone or food obtain- 

 able, might she not be tempted to sally forth from 

 her snug den too soon, and by so doing imperil the 

 safety of her offspring ? But being so small at 

 birth, and withal so utterly helpless, it becomes 

 absolutely necessary that many months should pass 

 away before the possibility arrives of their being 

 able to follow the mother. 



Twice only in my long experience as hunter and 

 trapper has it fallen to my lot to see a bear killed in 

 cub. So rarely does it happen even to Indians who 

 are always bear-hunting to destroy a female in cub, 

 that they hold doing it in superstitious dread, and 

 firmly believe and maintain that he who so destroys a 

 pregnant female bear will die before the end of a year. 

 Once during the marking the Boundary line in North 

 West America it occurred that a bear was killed in 

 cub ; and in this case the hunter who shot Madam 

 Bear was an Indian, in the employ of the Commission. 

 Of course his comrades thought him doomed ; but 

 as it was not very clear in what manner harm could 

 befall him, the matter passed away, and I had 

 almost forgotten it, when, strange to say, the very 

 Indian who killed the bear was shot dead in a fray 

 with some gold-washers — a coincidence that the 

 more firmly established in the red-skins' mind the 

 truth of their belief. 



The time a she-bear carries her young is about 

 seven months, and I have never seen a bear with 

 more than two cubs. I am indebted to Mr. Bartlett, 

 the able superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, 

 for the knowledge of the singular arrangement 

 observable in the mamma; or teats of the female 

 bear. There are six in all ; but four of them are 

 placed at the posterior part of the abdomen, and 

 two on the anterior, the latter two being separated 

 from the posterior four by a wide interval/to all 

 appearance unprovided with any lacteal glands. 

 There is some reason for this, but what that may 

 be, a more intimate acquaintance with the habits of 

 the beast can only determine. 



Eear of occupying space that can be more profit- 

 ably employed forbids my writing a tithe of what 

 I should like to write concerning this, to me 

 most interesting subject. I have, however, been 

 tempted to offer these somewhat crude speculations 



