HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



131 



About the end of October, when the stringent 

 winter of the North, with its attendant scarcity of 

 food, begins to be felt in his high-lying and dreary 

 realm, the bear altogether ceases to eat, and prepares 

 •a dormitory in which to sleep over the season of cold 

 and dearth. This lair, ide or hide* is usually in the 

 deep cleft of a rock, under an old tree root, or in a 

 pit which he digs for himself, Into such sheltered 

 recess he gathers abundance of moss, ling, and spruce- 

 twigs ; and in November, with an empty stomach, 

 lies down on this soft bed, rolled up usually in his 

 thick, furry cloak, with his head between his hind 

 feet, and resigns himself to a deep, oblivious sleep 

 till the return of milder days. It is believed by the 

 peasants that before commencing his long slumber he 

 makes a two days' trial of the chosen site, to see that 

 it is undisturbed and secure. Nor is sleep afterwards 

 always unbroken ; for though he sleeps hard while 

 the cold continues extreme, and is quite sluggish if 

 then disturbed, yet as spring approaches his slumbers 

 are often so light that he awakes and takes to flight 

 on the occurrence of the slightest noise, even when 

 otherwise he would have enjoyed a long continuance 

 of repose. If the prevalence of rainy or foggy 

 weather has rendered his dormitory uncomfortably 

 wet he will generally turn out for fresh twigs, or in 

 quest of a drier site. 



Eating nothing during the whole period of hyber- 

 nation the bear wastes the flesh and fat previously 

 accumulated ; and though he continues in good con- 

 dition till after Yule, is necessarily very lean and 

 weak when, in April or May, he leaves his retreat. 

 He then at first contents himself with lighter diet, 

 such as ants and insect larva;, but gradually taking 

 more nutritious food, soon regains his normal weight 

 and strength. 



A month after the bear has left his winter lair he 

 seeks a mate and the pair associate till into July. 

 The female brings fortli her young, in the lair, to- 

 wards the end of January ; she has from one to three, 

 rarely four, at a birth, and though sometimes she eats 

 nothing, she gives them suck. They give no early 

 promise of future greatness and prowess, being only 

 about eight inches long, blind and toothless ; but 

 they wax apace, and have already assumed importance 

 when they quit their nursery in spring. The dam 

 and cubs keep company till autumn; but if the 

 former again becomes pregnant she will not allow 

 the cubs to share her winter's retreat, and though 

 far from full-grown they must learn to make a bed 

 for themselves. In other cases the whole family lie 

 together and continue to associate after again emerg- 

 ing from the lair; and sometimes do not entirely 

 separate before the young are from three to four years 

 old, and have founded families themselves. 



{To be continued.) 



* Related to the English hitke, a small haven. 



ON MOUNTING SEEDS. 



I SHOULD advise every possessor of a microscope, 

 who has not already turned his attention to the 

 examination of various seeds, to do so at the earliest 

 opportunity, and he will readily admit, after careful 

 study, how amply his labours have been rewarded. 



It is my intention in this short paper to give a few 

 hints which may be useful to the young microscopist, 

 as to the easiest way of preparing seeds as permanent 

 objects for the microscope, and also a list of the most 

 curious and interesting. 



Some seeds may be mounted dry, whilst others 

 require to be put up in balsam ; the first method 

 being more simple than the latter, and may be used 

 in all cases where the seeds are to be viewed as 

 opaque objects, or are very transparent in them- 

 selves. 



Before commencing you will require the following 

 apparatus : 



1. Wooden slides with hole in the centre. 



2. Glass slips 3x1. 



3. Thin glass in circles. 



4. Small glass tubes. 



5. Camel's-hair brushes. 



6. Coloured paper for covering object slips. 



7. Bottle of Canada balsam. 



8. Bottle of turpentine. 



9. Bottle of gum mucilage thickened with starch, 

 ro. Bottle of cement made by dissolving shellac 



in naphtha. 



II. Spirit-lamp. 



Having these requisites at hand, you may at once 

 proceed. 



Suppose for example, you wish to mount some 

 seeds as opaque objects. First take one of the 

 wooden slides and gum a piece of cardboard over the 

 hole in the centre, you will then have a kind of cell ; 

 in the middle of this cell paste a small square piece 

 of cardboard, then paint the inside with Indian ink. 

 When the paint is dry, brush over the square in the 

 middle of the cell with gum, and place the seeds in 

 various positions on it, and if placed near together, 

 you will have a perfect square of seeds. 



Wait then until the gum is dry : and I may here 

 mention the advisability of having two or three slides 

 in hand at once, so that time may not be wasted. 

 After the gum is quite dry, proceed to lay on one of 

 the circles of thin glass, which, of course, must be 

 larger than the cell. Then dip a camel's-hair brush 

 into the shellac fluid, and go round the edge, touching 

 the glass and the slide at the same time. If this be 

 done properly, the glass (when the shellac is dry) 

 will be quite hard and fast to the slide. Some 

 people, I know, fasten theirs down with small strips 

 of paper ; but I have always found the shellac to be 

 just as easy, and to my mind more serviceable. 



Nothing then remains but to finish off with orna- 

 mental paper, taking care to label it. 



