THE BROWN BEAR 601 



they have, I believe, become much rarer now. When I first knewoKashmir, in 1874, 

 it was no uncommon event in the Tilel district to see several at once, when standing 

 on a mountain ridge ; but eight years later I saw but very few the whole time I was 

 there, and it would be interesting to hear the reports of sportsmen who have recently 

 visited Tilel and the neighboring valleys. 



In Kamchatka, Dr. Guillemard, in the Cruise of the "Marchesa," speaks of brown 

 bears being extremely plentiful and attaining large dimensions. The country near 

 the rivers is there covered by an almost impenetrable jungle, but the bears manage 

 to force themselves through it without much apparent difficulty. "Just inside the 

 forest," writes Dr. Guillemard, " at a distance of six or eight feet from the river 

 bank, is a firmly-trodden path some two feet in width, made entirely by these ani- 

 mals ; and, as these paths are to be found without a break on either side of the river 

 in its whole course through the forest country a distance of about five hundred 

 miles it will be understood why bears' skins do not command a very high price in 

 the peninsula." 



The brown bear is a comparatively unsociable animal, though not unfrequently 

 a male and a female may be seen together, while the females are, of course, accom- 

 panied by their cubs. Their favorite haunts are wooded, hilly districts. In the 

 Himalayas the brown bear is to be found at considerable elevations, in the spring 

 haunting the higher birch and deodar forests, while in the late summer it ascends 

 to the open grass lands above, where it may not unfrequently be seen grazing close 

 to herds of ponits and flocks of sheep or goats. Both, in these regions, and the 

 colder districts of Europe and Northern Asia, these bears regularly hibernate ; and 

 while they are extremely fat at the commencement of their winter sleep, they are 

 reduced to little more than skin and bone at its conclusion. In the Himalayas the 

 winter's sleep generally lasts till April or May, but varies somewhat in different dis- 

 tricts according to the date at which the snow melts. The cubs are generally born 

 during the latter part of the hibernation, and accompany the mother when she issues 

 forth. They are almost invariably two in number, and are born blind and naked, 

 in which condition they remain for about four weeks. In Europe the brown bear 

 not unfrequently kills and eats other animals, its depredations extending, it is said, 

 even to cattle and ponies ; but in the Himalayas, except when carcasses come in its 

 way, the animal is almost exclusively an insect and vegetable feeder. There it is 

 fond of the numerous species of bulbous plants growing on the mountains around 

 Kashmir ; but it will also descend into the orchards of the upland villages to plunder 

 the crops of mulberries, apricots, walnuts, etc. On such occasions it ascends 

 the trees readily enough, although it is by no means such a good climber as its 

 cousin the Himalayan black bear. It seeks for insects by overturning stones. 



In Kamchatka the brown bear is stated to subsist for a certain portion of the 

 year upon salmon ; Dr. Guillemard observing that in some places he met with nu- 

 merous half-eaten fish left by the bears, and adding that he found in almost every in- 

 stance that " though the head had been crunched up, it had, together with the tail 

 and intestines, invariably been rejected. We were never fortunate enough to wit- 

 ness these animals fishing, but we were told that they walk slowly into the water, 

 where it is about eighteen inches in depth, and, facing down stream, motionless 



