390 CHARACTER OF THE BEAR. 
These animals are found in almost every portion of the earth’s surface, and are fitted 
by nature to inhabit the hottest and the coldest parts of the world. India, Borneo, and 
other burning lands are the homes of sundry members of this family, such as the Bruang 
and the Aswail, while the snowy regions of Northern Europe and the icebound coasts of the 
Aretie Ocean are inhabited by the Brown Bear and the Nennook or Polar Bear. The diet 
of the Ursidie is of a mixed character, and the creatures appear to be capable of 
sustaining existence upon a purely animal or purely vegetable diet, or to be carnivorous 
or vegetarian at will. Indeed, it is found that when Bears are kept in captivity, they 
may be restricted to vegetable food with the best result, both to themselves and their 
owners. With a few rare exceptions, the Bears are singularly harmless animals when 
undisturbed, contenting themselves with fruit, honey, nuts, snails, roots, and other similar 
articles of diet, and rarely attacking the higher animals, except when driven by 
necessity. ; 
In their gait the Bears are all plantigrade, and on account of the large surface which 
is placed on the ground when they walk, they are capable of erecting themselves on their 
hinder limbs, and of supporting themselves in an erect position with the greatest ease. 
When attacked in close combat, they have a habit of rearing themselves upon their 
hinder feet, and of striking terrific blows with their fore-paws, which, if they take effect 
upon their object, cause the most dreadful injuries. 
The paws of the Bears are armed with long and sharp talons, which are not capable 
of retraction, but which are most efficient weapons of offence when urged by the powerful 
muscles which give force to the Bear's limbs. Should the adversary contrive to elude the 
quick and heavy blows of the paw, the Bear endeavours to seize the foe round the body, 
and by dint of sheer pressure to overcome its enemy. In guarding itself from the blows 
which are aimed at it by its adversary the Bear is singularly adroit, warding off the 
fiercest strokes with a dexterity that might be envied by many a pretender to the 
pueilistie art. : 
Few antagonists are so formidable to the experienced hunter as the Bear, whether it 
be the Brown Bear of Northern Europe, the Black or Grizzly Bear of America, the 
Aswail of India, or the Polar Bear of the Arctic regions ; and although there are a few 
instances where a man has conquered a Bear in fair hand-to-hand combat, there are few 
animals whom a hunter would not rather oppose than the Bear, provided that he were 
deprived of fire-arms, and furnished only with a knife or hatchet. On one or two 
occasions, a foolhardy and ignorant person has ventured to attack and to kill a Bear in 
single combat, but in such instances the victory has almost always been attributable to 
some accident which never could have been foreseen, and on which no real hunter would 
have calculated. In fact, the more experienced the hunter, the less will he venture 
himself against the beast, which, according to Scandinavian aphorism, “has the strength 
of ten men and the sense of twelve.” 
With fearful ingenuity, the Bear, when engaged with a human foe, directs its attacks 
upon the head of its antagonist, and if one of its powerful strokes should take effect, has 
been known to strike the entire scalp from off the head at a single blow. Mr. Lloyd, who 
had the great misfortune to be struck down by a Bear, and the singular good fortune to 
escape from its fangs, says that when he was lyi ing on the ground at the mercy of the 
angry beast, the animal, after biting him upon the arms and legs, deliberately settled 
itself upon his head, and began to scarify if in the most business-like manner, leaving 
wounds of eight and nine inches in length. The experience of this practised Bear- hunter 
goes to show that the Bear does not make use of its claws when its opponent has been 
once struck down, but inflicts the subsequent injuries wholly with its teeth. It does not 
appear from Mr. Lloyd’s account that the senses of a person who is seized by a Bear are 
blunted in the manner which takes place when a lion or tiger is the assailant. 
All the Bears are the more terrible antagonists from their extreme tenacity of life, 
and the fearful energy which they compress into the last moment of existence when they 
are suffermg from a mortal wound. Unless struck in the heart or brain, the mortally 
wounded Bear is more to be feared than if it had received no injury whatever, and 
contrives to wreak more harm in the few minutes that immediately precede its decease 
