ANIMAL KEPUTATION. 87 



the Arctic or Polar bear that with which we are most 

 familiar by name is intelligent, ingenious, active, energetic 

 affectionate, emotional, playful, companionable, and tract- 

 able. It is capable of generosity, of self-devotion or self- 

 sacrifice for or with its young, and it exhibits caution in the 

 avoidance of snares. 



Bear whelps frequently become not only amusing but 

 harmless playfellows of children. Of a military bear pet we 

 are told that it played at 'hide and seek* with the band 

 boys, wrestled or boxed with the men, standing on its hind 

 legs, and all in perfect good temper (' Chambers's Journal'). 

 There is, in fact, a rarity of bad humour, of any loss of 

 temper, in bear whelps brought up with children. Even 

 teasing by the latter is borne with wonderful equanimity 

 (Cassell). In some cases a decided affection is contracted 

 for some child companion, whom the bear cub may even 

 fee^l, protect, and caress ('Percy Anecdotes'). They may 

 be trained to sit at table and to behave becomingly, so far 

 as their ungainly structure for such a purpose will admit. 

 Tamed bears or bear whelps also mess amicably with cats, 

 dogs, and birds as well as with children (Cassell). The 

 solicitude of the mother bear for her cubs is notorious to 

 Arctic travellers. She is even demonstrative in her affec- 

 tion for instance, when they are wounded (Houzeau). 



The bear displays, moreover, conspicuous sagacity and 

 ingenuity in its mode of killing the walrus. It is no peculi- 

 arity of the Arctic bear that it is sometimes unhappy, sullen, 

 angry, revengeful ; but it is under the influence of man's 

 persecution of or cruelty to their cubs, rather than them- 

 selves, that such moral or mental qualities or conditions are 

 developed. 



The poor cat has probably been as much maligned and 

 misunderstood or misappreciated as it has been petted. We 

 are told that its apparent affection is only a ' cupboard love;' 

 and this cupboard love is popularly supposed sufficient to 

 account for its propensity to pilfer eatables and drinkables. 

 It is said to be attached to places, not to persons, to stick to 

 some given house even when a master or mistress who 

 has lavished kindness upon it has had occasion to change 



