x THE BEAR 201 



ordinary course, simply confining themselves to moderate diet for 

 the first few days after their long abstinence. In a time of 

 starvation in Africa I have frequently composed myself to sleep 

 in the absence of my daily food, and I have awoke without any 

 disagreeable craving for a meal. Continued sleep will to a certain 

 extent render the body independent of other nutriment, and I 

 should imagine that the custom of hybernation has been induced 

 by necessity. At a season when the fruits of the earth are 

 exhausted, the ground frozen to a degree that would render 

 scratching for roots impossible, an animal that was dependent upon 

 such productions for its existence must either starve or sleep. The 

 sleep is in itself a first stage of the process of starvation. The 

 creature that can sleep through an existence of four months 

 without food, and lose the whole of its fat during that interval of 

 inaction, has already lost all that supported life during the period 

 of total abstinence the fat, or carbon. If it were to begin 

 another turn of sleep in its exhausted state, it would be unable to 

 support its existence. 



I therefore regard hybernation as the result of the highest 

 physical condition, the animal being thoroughly fat; the food 

 ceases, and the beast, knowing this fact, lays itself down to sleep, 

 and exists upon its own fat, which gradually disappears during the 

 interval of starvation. The bear wakes up in spring with a ragged 

 ill-conditioned skin, instead of the glossy fur with which it nestled 

 into rest ; and it finds its coat a few sizes too large, until an in- 

 dustrious search for food shall have restored its figure to its original 

 rotund proportions. 



The proof of this necessity for repose during a period of en- 

 forced abstinence will be observed in the independence of tropical 

 bears, which do not hybernate, for the best of all reasons, " that 

 there is no winter," therefore they can procure their usual food 

 throughout every season without difficulty or interruption. 



The animals of America are all exaggerated specimens of the 

 species, and the grizzly bear, if standing by the side of the ordinary 

 brown bear of Northern Europe, would hardly exhibit any striking 

 difference except in superior size and a slight roughness of colour. 

 I have heard the question frequently discussed when in the Big 

 Horn range of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming ; some of the 

 professional hunters term all bears grizzlies, while others deny the 

 existence of the true grizzly except upon the Pacific slope. 



There is no doubt that all the American bears will eat flesh 

 whenever they can obtain it, although they do not pursue animals 

 as objects for food. The usual custom in bear-shooting is to kill a 



