CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 157 



railing of the bear-den was thronged with men, women, and children, and the cry of "Martin! 

 Martin !" was heard on all sides. The creature knew his name, and at the call, performed his 

 various feats of grimacing, tumbling, and attitudinizing. But this was not his only claim to 

 .celebrity. Some hard stories were told about him, one of which was as follows • The night sentry, 

 looking down into the fosse while the bear was asleep in his lair, observed in the flickering 

 light what he thought was a twenty-franc gold piece upon the stone floor. He got a ladder 

 and went down, but was disappointed to find that the supposed coin was a brass suspender-button. 

 He uttered a cry, upon which the bear, aroused from his slumber, descended in his usual agile 

 manner, and made a hearty meal upon the unfortunate veteran! This is as the story was told, 

 but the fact w T as, that the man was found dead in the morning, with Bruin sitting by him. He 

 probably fell from the ladder, and was killed outright in the fall. However, the affair made a 

 tremendous sensation in Paris, and one of the ballads composed upon the event, has obtained 

 a place in the permanent popular literature of France. 



In general, bears are heavy animals, and strictly plantigrade in their walk, which is awkward 

 and shuffling ; the anterior limbs are, however, possessed of great mobility, and many of them 

 manifest much dexterity in climbing. Their feet are armed with long curved claws, with which 

 they dig in search of roots and other articles of food. Their bodies are usually covered with 

 long shaggy hair, the tail being remarkably short. The ears are small, and the nose is more or 

 less produced and movable, in some species forming a sort of proboscis. 



Bears are generally inhabitants of the wooded districts in mountainous countries. They feed 

 principally upon vegetable substances, such as roots and berries; they also devour worms and 

 insects, especially ants ; and now and then make a meal upon some of the smaller Mammalia, 

 when these come in their way. Their partiality for honey has been already mentioned; in some 

 places they manifest a fondness for fish. Bears are hunted principally for the sake of their 

 skin and fat ; the latter being extensive!}' used as an application to the hair. Their flesh is 

 eaten, and the broad paws are regarded as a dainty morsel ; the hams, when cured, are also in 

 great repute. Some of the species lie in a dormant state during the winter season. 



The Brown Bear, Ursus Arctos, is the Ours of the French, Orso of the Italians, Bar of the 

 Germans, Bjbrn of the Swedes. It is the common bear of Europe, and is widely diffused. The 

 mountainous districts of Europe, from very high latitudes in the north, to the Alps and Pyrenees 

 in the south ; Siberia, Kamstchatka, and even Japan, to the eastward, and a portion of the 

 northern regions of America, form the range of its geographical distribution. 



To the Kamstchatkans this bear seems to furnish the necessaries and even the comforts of life. 

 The skin, we are told, forms their beds and their coverlets, bonnets for their heads, gloves for 

 their hands, and collars for their dogs ; while an overall made of it, and drawn over the soles 

 of their shoes, prevents them from slipping on the ice. The flesh and fat are their dainties. Of 

 the intestines they make masks or covers for their faces, to protect them from the glare of the 

 sun in the spring, and use them as a substitute for glass, by extending them over their window-. 

 Even the shoulder-blades are said to be put in requisition for cutting grass. 



The Laplanders hold it in great veneration, and call it the Bog of God. It appears that there 

 has long been among the Norwegians a proverb, that the bear has the strength of ten men and 

 the sense of twelve. They never presume to call it by its proper name of Guouzhja, lest it 

 should revenge the insult on their flocks ; but make mention of it as Moedda-Air/ja, the Old Man 

 with a Fur Cloak. These superstitions remind us of those respecting the bear among our North 

 American Indians. 



The brown bear is four to five feet in length by two and a half in height. It is a solitary 

 animal : its retreat during the period of hibernation is the natural hollow of a tree, or some 

 cavern ; and if these are not to be found, the animal constructs a habitation for itself, sometimes 

 by digging, sometimes by forming a rude kind of hut or den with branches of trees, lined with 

 moss. Here it retires when fat with the summer's food, and remains .dormant, without taking 

 any sustenance, till the ensuing spring. The period of gestation is about seven months, the 

 birth taking place in January. The cubs when first born are not much larger than puppies. 

 I The animals are- long lived, for it appears that one at Berne had been confined there thirty-one 



