670 NATURAL HISTORY. 



merely for the purpose of giving the strong claws on the hind feet a chance 

 to tear and lacerate the body, and these organs make even worse wounds 

 than the teeth. 



Among savage, and even among some civilized people, the bears are 

 viewed with a peculiar reverence, which, however, does not prevent their 

 being killed whenever opportunity offers. In northern Europe this goes 

 so far that the name of the bear must not be spoken, and as in the case of 

 the Jews of yore, they have invented various euphemistic expressions, such 

 as the 'old man in the fur coat,' the 'dog of God,' and the like, for use 

 when referring to this animal. Our own Indians also recognize a super- 

 natural element in bruin, as in the following account from the pages of 

 Charlevoix : — 



" As soon as a bear is killed, the huntsman places his lighted pipe in 

 his mouth and blows the beast's throat and windpipe full of the smoke, at 

 the same time conjuring his spirit to hold no resentment for the insult 

 done his body, and to be propitious to him in his future huntings. But as 

 the spirit makes no answer, the huntsman, to know whether his prayers 

 have been heard, cuts off the membrane under his tongue, which he keeps 

 till his return to the village, when every one throws his own membranes 

 into the fire after many invocations and abundance of ceremony. If these 

 happen to crackle and shrivel up, and it can hardly be otherwise, it is 

 looked upon as a certain sign that the manes of the bears are appeased ; if 

 otherwise, they imagine the departed bears are wroth with them, and that 

 next year's hunting will be unprosperous, at least till some means are found 

 for reconciling them, for they have a remedy for everything." It must be 

 a comical sight to see one of these grim warriors bending over the carcass 

 of bruin and whispering in his ear: "Now, bear, it was a fair fight, and 

 you were beaten, so you must not bear any resentment any more than I 

 should if you hail killed me." 



The grizzly bear of the Rocky Mountains is the largest of all the group, 

 ami well does it deserve the name of horribi/is if a tithe of the stories told 

 about it are true. It may reach a length of eight or nine feet and a 

 weight of seven or eight hundred pounds, and its strength is in due pro- 

 portion to its size. Its coat is a grizzly gray or brown, its teeth are strong, 

 and its claws are long and sharp, making it the most formidable opponent 

 of all the bears. Many are the tales of its hunting its hunters and its 

 turning the tallies on its pursuers. 



The polar bear, the last American species to be mentioned, lives far to 

 the north in the realms of snow and ice, and its fur, of a snowy or yellow- 

 ish white, agrees with its normal surroundings. In the regions it inhabits 

 vegetation is wanting, and so it must perforce feed almost solely on flesh. 



