*G8 NATURAL HISTORY. 



ing no exercise or motion, they must necessarily lose 

 very little by perspiration. 



Though the males of the brown species devour their 

 young, when they find an opportunity for it, yet the 

 females seem, on the contrary, to love them with a 

 ferocious distraction. When once they have brought 

 forth, their fury is more violent, as well as more dan- 

 gerous, than that of the males. Before the young 

 leave the womb, their formation is perfect ; and if ei- 

 ther the fostus of the bear, or the bear when newly 

 yeaned, appears at the first glance, unformed, it is 

 merely because there is a want of proportion in the 

 body and members even of the grown bear, and which 

 is well known to be the case in all animals, because the 

 foetus, or the new produced is always more dispropor- 

 tioned than the grown one. 



The voice of the bear is a kind of growl, or harsh 

 murmur, which, when enraged, is heightened by a 

 clashing of the teeth. Highly susceptible of anger, 

 that anger is always furious, and often capricious. 

 However mild he may appear before his master, and 

 even obedient when tamed, he ought still to be distrust- 

 ed, still treated with circumspection. It is most dan- 

 gerous to strike him on the tip of the nose, or to touch 

 him on the parts of generation. 



He is capable of some degree of instruction. There 

 are few who have not seen him stand on his hind legs, 

 or dance in a rude and awkward measure, to tunes ei- 

 ther sung or played on an instrument. But, even in 

 thus tutoring him, it is necessary, in order to succeed, 

 that he should be taken young, and held in constraint 

 ever after. The bear which has passed his youth, is 

 not to be tamed nor even held in awe, and shews him- 

 self, if not intrepid, at least fearless of danger. 



