ON A CUB FOUND IN A BEAR'S DEN — GILPIN. 153 



out of winter quarters very fat, it all wastes in a few days. As 

 to the degree of hibernation attained to, Stephen Bradford's 

 narrative is verified by other Indians, and by observation of 

 tame bears. In captivity, especially if well fed and housed, 

 some never hibernate, but sleep much more during the winter. 

 Others you may force into hibernation by want of food, and 

 confining them in a dark cellar. They have been noticed in 

 coining out of their houses into an atmosphere nearly at zero, to 

 be covered by a thick mist of condensed invisible sweat ; this is 

 the vapour hanging over their dens in the forest, and conducting 

 the Indian to them. They are never entirely unconscious; being 

 poked by a stick they will growl but relapse immediately again, 

 and it requires much poking to arouse them, as Stephen Brad- 

 ford's bad powder and dirty gun did in his narrative. Having 

 thus, as one may say, re-verified by personal observation and 

 modern research, what are the recorded facts of the older 

 naturalists as well as the traditions of our Indians, who have 

 never read a book or heard of a naturalist, we may pass to those 

 considerations which the finding of this most rare specimen has 

 drawn our attention to, as regards its condition both within the 

 womb and its nutrition after birth. 



That so highly organized an animal as a bear should be able 

 to retain not only his vitality but his animal heat, and his 

 muscular strength for the space of four months, without any 

 food whatever, is sufficiently wonderful, knowing as we do, that 

 in this time, if there be no supply there is no waste, save pre- 

 haps of animal heat. But when we consider the female, we find 

 there is no waste and no supply. The material for a second life, 

 and its growth, must be taken from an accumulated fund. 

 Taking the middle of September as the time of conception of 

 the individual before us, and allowing she went into winter 

 quarters about the middle of November, she then carried within 

 her a foetus of two months old. This foetus she sustained, and 

 eliminated substance for its growth for six weeks, with no 

 exterior resources, and in a profound torpor. This torpor spreads 

 over all organs of the body, save those of the womb. About the 

 1st of January, as most certainly is proved by the conditions of 



