THE BEARS. 



obey mtj till he had got a good cudgelling, 

 which banished him to his den for some days 

 But he was perhaps the niost intelligent 

 animal that we had on board, including both 

 doo-s and foxes. On the deck there stood a 

 cask filled with salt meat. The other animals 

 sniffed all round it, and endeavoured unsuc- 

 cessfully to gnaw through the wood. The 



bear, after attentively examining the cask for 

 a whole day, at last found the bung, and this 

 he managed to pull out with his teeth and 

 paws so that he could introduce his long 

 snout into the hole and lick the contents. 

 The cook complained of him bitterly, because 

 he was far cleverer at plundering his stores 

 than foxes and dogs. The young bear may 



FiK- lo.S 



-'rhe Black Bear [Ursus aincricanui). 



be uncouth, clumsy, and obstinate — but awk- i on berries and other fruits, roots, honey, and 

 wardness and clumsiness do not exclude j ants, even the old bear is a good-humoured 

 intelligence. fellow; in winter he becomes a flesh-eater, 



The bear, like other carnivores, becomes and \\hen hunger torments him he spares 

 sullen and even malicious in old age. But i nothing. He then attacks man as well as 

 even then it is principally when his rest is , the largest animals, pursues horses and oxen 

 disturbed that he makes himself disagreeable. ; running, breaks into dwellings and stables. 

 He will spend whole hours sucking at his slaughters e\ery living thing, and fills the 



paws and gently growling the while. M)' 

 bear had the haljit of sucking in that way at 

 the end of my dressing-gown or the bottoms 

 of my trousers when I sat studying on deck. 

 If one disturbs the bear in this peaceful 

 occupation he becomes furious ; but one who 

 passes quietly by without disturbing him he 

 allows to go on his way unmolested. 



And yet not always. In summer, when 

 he is principally a vegetarian, feeding chiefly 



neighbourhood with terror by his growds. 



1 he chase of the brown bear is always 

 dangerous, but is a favourite sport among 

 the inhabitants of the North. The bear 

 knows the dancfer that threatens him, and 

 takes to flight. When assailed by the dogs 

 he at last stands at bay. With one stroke of 

 his powerful paw he slits open the belly of a 

 dog or breaks its back-bone. If only wounded 

 by a hunter he dashes upon his antagonist. 



