THE BHAKS 



I I 3 



to illustrate a theory of his, that the killing of wild 

 animals by other animals is not a painful one. 



Rustem Pasha, once Turkish Ambassador in 

 England, had an accident when brown bear shoot- 

 ing in Russia, and writes oi it in the same sense : 

 •• When I met the accident alluded to, the bear 

 injured both my hands, but did not tear off part of 

 the arm or shoulder. In the moment of desperate 

 struggle, the intense excitement and anger did, in 

 fact, render me insensible to the feeling of actual 

 ]j.uii as the bear gnawed my left hand, which was 

 badly torn ami perforated with holes, most ol the 

 bi mes being broken." 



There is good reason to believe that when 

 large carnivora, or beasts large in proportion to the 

 size of their victims, strike and kill them with a 

 great previous shock, the sense of pain is deadened. 

 Not so if the person or animal is seized quietly. 

 Then the pain is intense, though sometimes only 

 momentary. A tigress seized Mr. J. Hansard, a 

 forest officer in Ceylon, by the neck. In describing 

 his sensations afterwards, he said : " The agony 1 

 felt was something frightful. My whole skull seemed 

 as if it were being crushed to atoms in the jaws of 

 the gre.it brute. I certainly felt the most awful pain 

 as she was biting my neck ; but not afterwards, if I 

 can remember." Sir Samuel Baker says he has 

 twice seen the sloth-bear attack a howdah-elephant. Lord Edward St. Maur, son of the Duke 

 of Somerset, was killed by one. Mr. Sanderson, the head of the Government Elephant-catching 

 Department, used to hunt bears in the jungle with bull-terriers. Against these the bear was 

 unable to make a good fight. They seized it by the nose; and as its claws were not sharp like 

 those of the leopard, the bear could not get them off. 



This bear seldom produces more than two or three young at a birth. The young cub is 

 very ugly, but very strong, especially in the claws and legs. A six weeks' old cub has been 

 turned upside-down in a basket, which was shaken violently, without dislodging the little animal 

 clinging inside. 



The Isabelline Bear and Himalayan Black Bear. 



The former animal is a medium-sized variety of the brown bear. The coat in winter is of a 

 beautiful silver tipped cinnamon colour. 'Hie 1 1 1 MALAYAN Black Bear has a half-moon of white i >n 

 its throat. The habits of both do not differ markedly from those of the brown bear of Europe. 



Recently black bears have been most troublesome in Kashmir, attacking and killing and 

 wounding the wood-cutters with no provocation. Dr. E. T. Yerc, writing from Srinagar, says: 

 " Every year we have about half a dozen patients who have been mauled by bears. Most of our 

 people who are hurt are villagers or shepherds. Bears have been so shot at in Kashmir that, 

 although not naturally very fierce, they have become truculent. When they attack men, they 

 usually sit up and knock the victim over with a paw. They then make one or two bites at the 

 arm or leg, and often finish up with a -nap at the head. This is the most dangerous part of the 

 attack. One of our fatal cases this year was a boy, the vault of whose skull was torn off and 

 lacerated. Another man received a compound fracture of the cranium. A third had the bones 



Photo by FratelU J'.inari] (F/or*n.. 



P (I1.AK B E A R S 



Though Arctic animals i polar bears tan endure great heat. 

 During a " heat tuave ' ' at Hamburgh Herr C. Hagenbet k 

 found tivo oj his leopards suffering from heat apoplcxx^ but the 

 polar bean ivcre enjoying the sun 



