CHAP. III. AFFECTION OF BEARS. ?1 



them, she went off, and, when she got to some distance, 

 looked back and moaned ; and that not availing her to 

 entice them away, she returned, and, smelling round 

 them, began to lick their wounds. She went off a 

 second time as before, and, having crawled a few paces, 

 looked again behind her, and for some time stood 

 moaning. But still her cubs not rising to follow her, 

 she returned to them again, and with signs of inexpres- 

 sible fondness went round, pawing them, and moaning. 

 Finding, at last, that they were cold and lifeless, she 

 raised her head towards the ship, and uttered a growl 

 of despair, which the murderers returned with a volley 

 of musket balls. She fell between her cubs, and died 

 licking their wounds." * The males are said frequently 

 to evince equal attachment to their mates ; and Mr. 

 Hearne relates that he has, himself, seen one of these, 

 after the female has been killed, come and put his fore 

 paws over her, and allow himself to be shot rather than 

 desert her remains. f Even the wolf is susceptible of 

 parental love ; and this creature, so dreadful to other 

 animals, pays the most unremitting attention to its 

 offspring, preparing their nest by plucking the hairs 

 out of. their own body, mixing them with a bed of 

 moss, and disgorging its food to afford them tender 

 meat. The timid prudence of the fox disappears when 

 she has the character of a mother to sustain, in the 

 support of which she shows herself fearless and cou- 

 rageous. The domestic hog, although, apparently, a 

 selfish, and, to us, rather a disgusting animal, is by no 

 means devoid of natural affection : on the contrary, if 

 a male and female be inclosed in the same sty while 

 young, if the latter be deprived of her companion, she 

 will pine with, and sometimes, as it has been said, 

 " die of, a broken heart." J The affection of the female 

 opossum is aided by the pouch which Nature has so 

 curiously contrived within herself, and into which the 

 young litter fly to shelter themselves from any ap- 



* Phipps's Voyage to the North Pole. f Hearne's Voyage, p. 386. 



$ Bingley's Animal Biography, vol. i. p. 513. This may be questioned. 



F 4> 



