BBAES. 157 



for a great portion of tteir food ; the flesh they describe as being 

 delicious eating. " The skin of the bear," says a traveller, " forms 

 their beds and coverlets, bonnets for their heads, gloves for their 

 hands, and collars for their dogs. The flesh and fat are their 

 dainties. Of the intestines they make masks or covers for their 

 faces to protect them from the glare of the sun in the spring, and 

 use them as a substitute for glass by extending them over their 

 windows. Even the shoulder-blades are said to be put in 

 requisition for cutting grass." 



The humming noise made by the telegraph-wires, seems to 

 puzzle the brown bears of Scandinavia, for they mistake it for 

 the buzzing of bees, and by report do considerable damage 

 through persistently scratching away the earth around the tele- 

 graph-poles under the deluded idea that they will discover honey. 



These bears when kept in confinement have to be approached 

 with caution. In the Rosherville Q-ardens some few months ago, 

 one lacerated the arm of a man who was feeding him, in a fright- 

 ful manner. The bear caught him with its paw, and then seized 

 his arm in its jaw. On assistance arriving, a large rake was 

 procured and the animal beaten over the head with it, which only 

 made matters worse, for it became infuriated to such an extent that 

 it gripped tighter and absolutely scrunched the arm till the 

 muscles were destroyed and the bone splintered. The man fainted, 

 and was taken to the hospital. His arm was useless afterwards. 

 In a suit he brought against the owners of the bear, the jury 

 awarded him 500Z. damages. His accident was due partially to 

 his own ignorance and the idea which seems to prevail among a large 

 section of the public that animals when confined lose all their 

 ferocious attributes and cease to be dangerous, whereas it is 

 frequently the other way ; the incarceration makes them savage 

 and willing to attack. 



Another exhibition of ignorance or daring took place at these 

 gardens. A sailor's hat fell into the pit where a brown bear was 

 kept. Jack immediately lowered himself after it. The animal 

 at once commenced in its lumbering, heavy fashion to make to- 

 wards him, but the cat-like agility of the sailor saved him, if not 

 from death, from an ugly scrape, for seizing hold of a water-pipe 



