REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW DOWNS. XXV 



a young one for a dollar which did a deal of damage in my barrack 

 room the first hour I possessed him, and, finally, by attacking my 

 legs, compelled me to get on a chair. But he was an exception. I 

 gave him to an officer going home — poor Welsford who fell at the 

 Eedan, and I believe the animal came to a bad end, having 

 injured a child. I gave him porridge and milk, and I well remem- 

 ber his comical snarling face as he greedily plunged his head into 

 it up to his eyes, growling the whole time. My wife and I, visiting 

 Downs's establislunent one afternoon, found two young bears 

 encaged there making a great fuss, the owner having gone into 

 town and left them without food — not a usual trait with Downs, 

 r went up the hill to saunter awhile in the woods, and on return- 

 ing, found her pacifying the youngsters by feeding them out of a 

 child's bottle obtained from the house, one at a time, on her lap, 

 to the astonishment of the boy who was left in charge. Perhaps I 

 had better state here that a young bear, even at mid-summer, is not 

 a very big animal. At birth, generally in February, it is surpris- 

 ingly diminutive, not more than six inches in length, almost 

 hairless, blind for the first month, and weighs less than a pound; 

 four to six hundred pounds being the weight of the- adult l)ears, 

 i. e. the black species, the only one found in Xova Scotia. 



Downs had some trouble with his seals. They were the ordinary 

 harbour species (Plioca vituUna), frequently seen in Halifax 

 harbour and in the North West Arm. Though wired in an enclos- 

 ure with a pond and running water, the smell of the sea so near 

 was too much for them, and several times have they been met on 

 the road, bumping themselves along down the hill to the head of 

 the Arm near which, the alami having been givefi, they were 

 recaptured. 



To Downs the province owes the introduction of both the Eng- 

 lish pheasant and the Canadian red-deer (Cervus virginianus) , 

 and I find the following paragraphs in a paper entitled, "Provin- 

 cial Acclimatization," which I contributed, in December, 1864, to 

 the X. S. Institute of Xatural Science, of which I was at that time 

 a vice-president : 



" With the fact of the introduction and breeding of the Eng- 

 lish and gold and silver pheasants at Mr. Downs's establishment we 



