ge THE STORY OF THE BEAR. 



In the mountains around the valley of Kashmir brown bears were once 

 very numerous, but they have become much rarer now. 



The brown bear is a comparatively unsociable animal, though not unfre- 

 quently a male and a female may be seen together, while the females are, of 

 course, accompanied by their cubs. Their favorite haunts are wooded, hilly 

 districts. In the Himalaya the brown bear is to be found at considerable 

 elevations, in the spring haunting the higher birch and deodar forests, while 

 in the late summer it ascends to the open grass-lands above, where it may 

 not unfrequently be seen grazing close to herds of ponies and flocks of 

 sheep or goats. Both in these regions, and the colder districts of Europe 

 and Northern Asia, these bears regularly hibernate; and while they are 

 extremely fat at the commencement of their winter sleep, they are reduced 

 to little more than skin and bone at its conclusion. In the Himalaya the 

 winter's sleep generally lasts till April or May, but varies somewhat in dif- 

 ferent districts according to the date at which the snow melts. 



The cubs are generally born during the latter part of the hibernation, 

 and accompanv the mother when she issues forth. They are almost invari- 

 ably two in number, and are born blind and naked, in which condition they 

 remain for about four w'eeks. 



In Europe the brown l.>ear not unfrequently kills and eats other animals, 

 its depredations extending, it is said, even to cattle and ponies; but in the 

 Himalaya, except when carcasses come in its way, the animal is almost 

 exclusively an insect and vegetable feeder. There it is fond of the numerous 

 species of bulbous plants growing on the mountains around Kashmir; but it 

 will also descend into the orchards of the upland villages to plunder the 

 crops of mulberries, apricots, walnuts, etc. On such occasions it ascends the 

 trees readily enough, although it is by no means such a good climber as its 

 cousin the Himalayan black bear. It seeks for insects by overturning stones. 



In Kamschatka the brown bear is stated to subsist for a certain portion of 

 the year upon salmon. They walk slowly into the water, where it is about 

 eighteen inches in depth, and, facing down stream, motionless await their 

 prey. The incautious fish, swimming heedlessly up the river, are seized upon, 

 and always taken to the bank to be devoured, for even the small ones do not 

 appear to be eaten whole. 



The brown bear, in common with its relatives, is dull of hearing, and it 

 is also by no means well gifted as regards sight. What it lacks in these 

 respects it makes up for, however, in the great development of the sense 

 of smell. Owing to this deficiency of hearing, a bear can be approached 



