70 HABKTS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. III. 



our readers ; but, although desperate for the moment, 

 they appear to be soon reconciled. 



(8?.) The lion, although subject to fits of un- 

 governable rage, is not, like the tiger, habitually cruel, 

 and destructive from mere wantonness. Its disposi- 

 tion, indeed, in some instances, has been generous, 

 and even capable of the strongest attachments. This 

 has been proved by the fact of one of these animals 

 living for a considerable time in perfect amity with a 

 dog, which was thrown into its den at the Tower : 

 while another anecdote has been told of a female lion, 

 which was attended by a negro, who had reared her, and 

 which became so fond of her keeper, that, when he quitted 

 Exeter 'Change, she pined away, and soon afterwards 

 died.* Different species of the bear are remarkable 

 for the strength of their parental affection. An in- 

 teresting instance of this was witnessed by the crew of 

 the Carcase frigate, which some years ago proceeded on 

 a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole, when 

 an old bear was attracted, with her cubs, by the smell 

 of a sea-horse, which had been killed some days before, 

 and the flesh of which she carefully divided between 

 her young ones, reserving but a small portion for her- 

 self. " As she was fetching away the last piece, the 

 sailors levelled their muskets at the cubs, and shot 

 them both dead ; and in her retreat they wounded the 

 dam, but not mortally. It would have drawn tears of 

 pity from any but unfeeling minds, to have marked the 

 affectionate concern expressed by this poor beast during 

 the last moments of her expiring young. Though she 

 was herself dreadfully wounded, and could but just 

 crawl to the place where they lay, she carried the lump 

 of flesh she had fetched away, as she had done others 

 before, tore it in pieces, and laid it before them ; and 

 when she* saw they refused to eat, she laid her paws 

 first upon one, and then upon the other, and endea- 

 voured to raise them up; all this while, it was pitiful 

 to hear her moan. When she found she could not stir 



* Bingley's Animal Biography, vol. i. p. 244. 



