390 CHARACTER OF THE BEAR. 



These animals are found in almost every portion of the earth's surface, and are fitted 

 by nature to inhabit the hottest and the coldest parts of the world. India, Borneo, and 

 other burning lands are the homes of sundry members of this family, such as the Bruang 

 and the Aswail, while the snowy regions of Northern Europe and the icebound coasts 

 of the Arctic Ocean are inhabited by the Brown Bear and the Nennook or Polar Bear. 

 The diet of the Ursidae is of a mixed character, and the creatures appear to be capable 

 of sustaining existence upon a purely animal or purely vegetable diet, or to be carniv- 

 orous or vegetarian at will. Indeed, it is found that when Bears are kept in captivity, 

 they may be restricted to vegetable food with the best result, both to themselves and 

 their owners. With a few rare exceptions, the Bears are singularly harmless animals 

 when undisturbed, contenting themselves with fruit, honey, nuts, snails, roots, and other 

 similar articles of diet, and rarely attacking the higher animals, except when driven by 

 necessity. 



In their gait the Bears are all plantigrade, and on account of the large surface which 

 is placed on the ground when they walk, they are capable of erecting themselves on their 

 hinder limbs, and of supporting themselves in an erect position with the greatest ease. 

 \Yhen attacked in close combat, they have a habit of rearing themselves upon their 

 hinder feet, and of striking terrific blows with their fore-paws, which, if they take effect 

 upon their object, cause the most dreadful injuries. 



The paws of the Bears are armed with long and sharp talons, which are not capable 

 of retraction, but which are most efficient weapons of offence when urged by the power- 

 ful muscles which give force to the Bear's limbs. Should the adversary contrive to 

 elude the quick and heavy blows of the paw, the Bear endeavors to seize the foe round 

 the body, and by dint of sheer pressure to overcome its enemy. In guarding itself 

 from the blows which are aimed at it by its adversary the Bear is singularly adroit, 

 warding off the fiercest strokes with a dexterity that might be envied by many a pre- 

 tender to the pugilistic art. 



Few antagonists are so formidable to the experienced hunter as the Bear, whether 

 it be the Brown Bear of Northern Europe, the Black or Grizzly Bear of America, the 

 Aswail of India, or the Polar Bear of the Arctic regions ; and although there are a few 

 instances where a man has conquered a Bear in fair hand-to-hand combat, there are few 

 animals whom a hunter would not rather oppose than the Bear, provided that he were 

 deprived of fire-arms, and furnished only with a knife or hatchet. On one or two 

 occasions, a foolhardy and ignorant person has ventured to attack and to kill a Bear in 

 single combat, but in such instances the victory has almost always been attributable to 

 some accident which never could have been foreseen, and on which no real hunter would 

 have calculated. In fact, the more experienced the hunter, the less will he venture 

 himself against the beast, which, according to Scandinavian aphorism, " has the strength 

 of ten men and the sense of twelve." 



With fearful ingenuity, the Bear, when engaged with a human foe, directs its attacks 

 upon the head of its antagonist, and if one of its powerful strokes should take effect, has 

 been known to strike the entire scalp from off the head at a single blow. Mr. Lloyd, who 

 had the great misfortune to be struck down by a Bear, and the singular good fortune to 

 escape from its fangs, says that when he was lying on the ground at the mercy of the 

 angry beast, the animal, after biting him upon the arms and legs, deliberately settled 

 itself upon his head, and began to scarify it in the most business-like manner, leaving 

 wounds of eight and nine inches in length. The experience of this practised Bear- 

 hunter goes to show that the Bear does not make use of its claws when its opponent 

 has been once struck down, but inflicts the subsequent injuries wholly with its teeth. 

 It does not appear from Mr. Lloyd's account that the senses of a person who is seized 

 by a Bear are blunted in the manner which takes place when a lion or tiger is the 

 assailant. 



All the Bears are the more terrible antagonists from their extreme tenacity of life, 

 and the fearful energy which they compress into the last moment of existence when they 

 are suffering from a mortal wound. Unless struck in the heart or brain, the mortally 

 wounded Bear is more to be feared than if it had received no injury whatever, and 

 contrives to wreak more harm in the few minutes that immediately precede its decease 



