The Bears 



119 



wandering through the woods to gather this harvest, not forgetting to rob every tree which 

 it comes across." 



THE INDIAN SLOTH-BEAR. 



Few people would believe that this awkward and ugly beast is so formidable as it is. It 

 is the commonest Indian species, seldom eats flesh, prefers sucking up the contents of a white 

 ants' nest to any other meal, and is not very large ; from 200 Ibs. to 300 Ibs. is the weight of 

 a male. But the skull and jaws are very strong, and the claws long and curved. As they are 

 used almost like a pickaxe when the bear wishes to dig in the hardest soil, their effect upon 

 the human body can be imagined. 



Sir Samuel Baker says that there are more accidents to natives of India and Ceylon from 

 this species than from any other animal. 



Mr. Watts Jones writes an interesting account of his sensations while being bitten by 



Photo ly C. Reid] 



\_Wishaw, N.B. 



A BROWN BEAR IN SEARCH OF INSECTS. 

 The photograph shows a bear feeding on insects, possibly large ants, which he licks up from the ground, after scratching them out with his claws. 



one of these bears : " I was following up a bear which I had wounded, and rashly went to the 

 mouth of a cave to which it had got. It charged. I shot, but failed to stop it. I do not know 

 exactly what happened next, neither does my hunter who was with me ; but I believe, from the 

 marks in the snow, that in his rush the bear knocked me over backwards in fact, knocked me 

 three or four feet away. When next I remember anything, the bear's weight was on me, and 

 he was biting my leg. He bit two or three times. I felt the flesh crush, but I felt no pain 

 at all. It was rather like having a tooth out with gas. I felt no particular terror, though I 

 thought the bear had got me; but in a hazy sort of way I wondered when he would kill me, 

 and thought what a fool I was to get killed by a stupid beast like a bear. The shikari then 

 very pluckily came up and fired a shot into the bear, and he left me. I felt the weight lift 

 off me, and got up. I did not think I was much hurt. N. . . The main wound was a flap of 

 flesh torn out of the inside of my left thigh and left hanging. It was fairly deep, and I could 

 see all the muscles working underneath when I lifted it up to clean the wound." This anecdote 



