HYBERNATION. 121 



vailing idea among the peasantry of the north, 

 that the bear does not sleep like the dormouse 

 or the marmot. It is somnolent, but not torpid, 

 nor is there any muscular rigidity. The fol- 

 lowing passage occurs in the History of the 

 American Black Bear:—" In the fur countries 

 this species usually hybernates, selecting a spot 

 under a fallen tree, where it scratches a hollow 

 in the earth. Here it retires at the commence- 

 ment of a snow-storm, and the snow soon fur- 

 nishes it with a close, warm covering. Its 

 breath makes a small opening in the snow, and 

 the quantity of hoar-frost which occasionally 

 gathers round the opening serves to betray its 

 retreat to the hunter. In more southern dis- 

 tricts, where the trees are larger, bears often 

 shelter themselves in the hollow trunks. It 

 has been observed by the Indians, that unless 

 bears are very fat on the approach of winter 

 they do not hybernate ; and as the males are 

 often thin and exhausted in September, should 

 the winter set in before they have time to 

 recover their fat, they migrate southwards in 

 search of food. So carefully do the females 

 with young conceal themselves, that Dr. Rich- 

 ardson's numerous inquiries among the Indians 

 of Hudson's Bay ended in the discovery of only 

 one man who had killed a pregnant bear." We 

 next refer to the account of the Polar Bear : — 

 " It is stated, on the best authorities, that the 

 male does not hybernate, but that the female, 

 on the approach of the severer season, retires 

 to some rift among the rocks or ice, or digs a 



