HIBERNATION OF THE BEAR. 



that they did this purposely, but it is now known that it is more truly 

 an accident. Sometimes they cannot break out of this snowy cavern, 

 and die of starvation, or are so weak when their prison melts that they 

 can hardly stand. They do not smother, because the heat of the body 

 keeps a little chimney open through the cave -roof. Discover- 

 ing this, the Eskimo hunter will often dig down and 

 kill the helpless bear in its bed. In precisely the 



■X, 



\ 



i 



same way those bears which remain abroad 



all through the long arctic winter smell out J~/ \\ 



the hiding-places of the seals under the snow, and break- <*' "■* 



intr them in, seize the seal or its young ones, unless they are 

 quick enough to drop through the hole in the ice kept open near by, 

 and so escape into the water. Hibernation is a word applied more com- 

 monly to bears than to any other kind of animal, but nowhere is the 

 phenomenon more partial. Many baby bears are born in the winter re- 

 treats, but they increase in size exceedingly little until late in the spring. 

 After the bears, come forward the otters, skunks, badgers, wolverines, 



