HYBERNATION OF THE BEAR. 393 
he demanded, with some irritation, “who brought the animal there?” and was told he was 
only a friend of H——’s, whom he had forgotten to introduce. 
The Bear speedily became a favourite in the regiment, and was promoted to the office 
of sentinel over the property contained in a haggage- waggon. Unfortunately, the poor 
animal’s sense of justice was so acute that it executed its responsible office with too much 
zeal. On one oceasion, a soldier had gone to the waggon with the intention of robbing it 
of some of the property contained therein, and quietly inserted his arm under the coverings 
His intended depredation was, however, soon checked by the teeth of the watchful Bear, 
which bit his arm with such severity that the limb was rendered useless for the rest of the 
man’s life. Some little time after this occurrence, a child belonging to the regiment made 
a similar attempt upon the waggon, and was killed by the Bear in its anxiety to fulfil the 
trust that had been committed to its charge. As the animal was manifestly an unsate 
one, and it was feared that the creature might gain a thirst for blood, it was condemned 
to be shot, although not without much regret on the part of judge and executioners. 
The various military adventures of this Bear are very curious, but would oceupy too 
large a space for the present work. 
During the autumn, the Bear becomes extremely fat, in consequence of the ample feasts 
which it is able to enjoy, and makes its preparations for passing the cold and inhospitable 
months of winter. About the end of October the Bear has completed its winter house, 
and ceases feeding for the year. The saccharine-loving instinct of the Bear which leads 
it to discover a bee’s nest, however care fully it may be conce aled, and to undergo much 
toil and trouble for the sake of the sweet banquet, seems to be given to the aie for the 
purpose of enabling it to lay up within its own body a supply of fat which shall serve the 
double purpose of “sustaining the creature in proper condition during its long fast, and of 
loading the body with carbon for the purpose of producing the state of lethargy in which 
the animal passes the winter. It is well known that sugar has the property of producing 
fat to a very great extent, and as it possesses more of the saccharine property than any 
other natural substance, the Bear is led by its instinct to search for and to devour this 
valuable food with untiring assiduity. : 
Again, the excess of carbon, whether it be diffused in the atmosphere or concentrated 
in the body, is always productive of sleep, or rather of lethargy, as is seen by the constant 
drowsiness of human beings when overloaded with this condensed carbon, or when they 
are placed in a room which is charged with the carbonic acid gas that has been exhaled 
from the lungs of its inhabitants. 
A curious phenomenon now takes place in the animal’s digestive organs, which gives 
it the capability of remaining through the entire winter in a state of letharey, without 
food, and yet without losing condition. As the stomach is no longer supplied with 
nourishment, it soon becomes quite empty, and, together with the intestines, is contracted 
into a very small space. No food can now pass through the system, for a mechanical 
obstruction—technically called the “ tappen”—blocks up the passage, and remains in its 
position until the spring. The “tappen” is almost entirely composed of pine-leaves, and 
the various substances which the Bear scratches out of the ants’ nests. 
From the end of October to the middle of April the Bear remains in his den, in a dull, 
lethargic state of existence; and it is a curious fact that if a hybernating Bear be 
discovered and killed in its den it is quite as fat as if it had been slain before it retired to 
its resting-place. Experienced hunters say that even at the end of its five months’ sleep, 
the Bear is as fat as at its beginning. Sometimes it is said that the Bear loses the 
“tappen” too soon, and in that case it immediately loses its sleek condition, and becomes 
extremely thin. During the winter, the Bear gains a new skin on the balls of the feet, 
and Mr. Lloyd suggests that the curious habit of suc ‘king the paws, to which Bears are so 
prone, is in order to facilitate the growth of the new integument. The den in which the 
Bear passes a long period of its life is mostly found under the sheltering defence of rocks 
or tree-roots, but is sometimes composed of moss which the Bear cathers into a hillock, 
and into which it creeps. ‘These moss-houses are not so easily discovered as might be 
supposed, for the habitation bears a very close resemblance to an ordinary hillock, and 
when the ground is covered with a uniform carpet of snow, might easily be passed with- 
