l82 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



had also his burying-place there * : but in other 

 parts of Egypt, according to the report of Hero- 

 dotus, who adds, that this animal is there very 

 scarce, they were buried in the same place where 

 they were found dead-J-. Pliny, however, states 

 that there are no bears in Egypt J. Laying aside 

 ancient and modern proofs, which appear positive, 

 I should be inclined to the opinion of this cele- 

 brated and elegant natural historian, and should 

 suppose that travellers might, at a distance, mis- 

 take the hyena for the bear. Indeed, how can 

 we believe that an animal, whose thick fur suffi- 

 ciently indicates that he is the native of a cold 

 climate, which delights in hilly and thickly-shaded 

 forests, should equally accustom himself to live 

 in waste and sandy plains, which a scorching 

 sun heats and dries up, and in which he could 

 find no means of subsistence ? Of the two species 

 of bear which exist, that of black and of red 

 bears, the former could not live in solitudes, 

 which did not afford him the thickness of forests, 

 nor tl)ose fruits, roots, or grains on which these 

 animals subsist. If the latter sort of bear is in- 

 tended, the red or brown, " which' are found not 

 " only in Savoy, but in lofty mountains, in vast 



* Pauw, Philosophical Researches respecting the Egyptians 

 and Chinese, vol. i. p. 152. 



f Book ii. § 67. Larcher's translation. 



i Hi.t. Nat. lib. viii. cap. 76. 



'^ forests, 



