CARNIVORA. 81 



depths of forests. In winter, they dwell in caves and hollow 

 trees, almost without food, and comparatively dormant. In that 

 season the female produces her young. Though widely diffused 

 throughout both continents, they are seldom met with in Africa. 

 Bears are said to be very fond of honey, and will climb trees in 

 order to get at the nests of wild bees, for though clumsy ani- 

 mals, they are expert climbers. In Russia and other northern 

 regions, the skins of bears are among the most useful as well as 

 most comfortable articles of winter apparel. They are made 

 into beds, coverlids, caps and gloves, and used also for the ham- 

 mer cloths of carnages, for pistol holsters, etc. ; and the leather 

 prepared from them is used in harness, and for other purposes 

 where strength is requisite. 



Ursus Arctus, (Gr. a^xrog, arktos, a be-ar.) This bear is 

 found in mountainous districts of Europe, from very high lati- 

 tudes to the Alps and Pyrenees. 



It was once common in Great Britain ; but centuries ago was 

 there extirpated. 



This bear of Northern Europe seems to be the only one with 

 which Linnaeus was acquainted. To the people of Kamtschatka 

 it gives the necessaries, and even the comforts of life ; its skins 

 forming their beds and coverlids, bonnets for their heads and 

 collars for their dogs; overalls are also made of the skins, 

 and drawn over the soles of their shoes, to prevent them from 

 slipping on the ice ; the intestines yield them material for masks 

 or covers for their faces, to protect them from the glare of the 

 sun in spring, and as substitutes for glass, cover their windows. 

 The flesh is much esteemed as food, and the hams and paws con- 

 sidered great delicacies. So great are the benefits which it 

 yields, that the Laplanders, it is said, call it "the dog of God; " 

 while the Norwegians say, " it has the strength of ten men and 

 the sense of twelve." If this bear is unable to find a hollow 

 tree or cavern for its wintry home, it constructs a habitation for 

 itself, out of branches of trees, lined with moss, where it contin- 

 ues dormant and without sustenance until spring. The female 

 produces two cubs at a birth, which at the first are about the 

 size of puppies. The brown bear is long lived. One in the 

 menagerie at Paris, France, is spoken of as forty-seven years 

 old. This animal is four feet in length, and about two and a 

 half feet in height. 



Ursus ferox, (Lat. ferox, fierce.) The GRIZZLY BEAR is 

 the most ferocious and powerful of the family, frequently attack- 

 ing man. It sometimes weighs more than 1,000 pounds. The 

 Indians fear it so much that a necklace of its claws, which may 



