90 THE SYRIAN BEAR. 
out suffering any apparent diminution in her condition. It is said by those 
who have had personal experience of the habits of the Bear, that the mother 
takes the greatest care of her offspring during the summer, but that when 
winter approaches, she does not suffer them to partake of her residence, but 
prepares winter quarters for them in her immediate neighbourhood. During 
the winter another little family is born, and when they issue forth from their 
home they are joined by the elder cubs, and the two families pass the next 
winter in the mother’s den. 
The SyRtaN BEAR, which is otherwise known by the name of DuBB, or 
Ritck, is doubly interesting to us,not only on account of its peculiarly 
gentle character, but from the fact that it is the animal which is so often 
mentioned in the Scriptural writings. 
The colour of this animal is rather peculiar, and varies extremely during 
the different periods of its life. While it is in its earliest years, the colour of 
its fur is a greyish brown, but as the animal increases in years the fur be- 
comes gradually lighter in tint, and, when the Bear has attained maturity, is 
nearly white. The hair is long and slightly curled, and beneath the longer 
hair is a thick and warm covering of closely-set woolly fur, which seems to 
defend the animal from the extremes of heat or cold. Along the shoulders 
and front of the neck, the hair is so perpendicularly set, and projects so firmly, 
that it gives the appearance of a mane, somewhat resembling that of the 
hyzena. 
At the present day the Syrian Bear may be found in the mountainous parts 
of Palestine, and has been frequently seen upon the higher Lebanon mountains, 
The fur of this bearis rather valuable on account of its warmth and beauty 
and the fat and the gall are also held in much esteem for various purposes, 
chiefly medicinal. 
AMERICA furnishes several species of the Bear tribe, two of which, the 
GRIZZLY BEAR and the MUSQUAW, or BLACK BEAR, are the most conspicuous. 
THE Black Bear is found in many parts of Northern America, and was 
formerly seen in great plenty. But as the fur and the fat are articles of great 
commercial and social value, the hunters have exercised their craft with such 
determination that the Black Bears are sensibly diminishing in number. The 
fur of the Black Bear is not so roughly shaggy as that of the European or 
the Syrian Bear, but is smooth and glossy in its appearance, so that it presents 
a very handsoine aspect to the eye, while its texture is as thick and warm as 
that of its rougher furred relations. 
THERE are few animals which are so widely and deservedly dreaded as the 
GRIZZLY BEAR. This terrible animal is an inhabitant of many portions of 
Northern America, and is the acknowledged superior of every animal that 
ranges over the same country. 
The other members of the ursine family are not given to attacking human 
beings, unless they are alarmed or wounded, but the Grizzly, or “ Ephraim,” 
as the creature is familiarly termed by the hunters, displays a most unpleasant 
readiness to assume the offensive as soon as it perceives a man, be he mounted 
or on foot, armed or otherwise. 
So tenacious of life is the Grizzly Bear, ‘that unless it receives a wound in 
the head or heart it will continue its furious struggles, even though it be 
riddled with bullets and its body pierced with many a gaping wound. These 
warlike capacities render the creature respected by the natives and colonists, 
and the slaughter of a Grizzly Bear in fair fight is considered an extremely 
high honour. Among the native tribes that dwell in the northern portions of 
America, the possession of a necklace formed from the claws of the Grizzly 
Bear is considered as enviable a mark of distinction as a blue ribbon among 
ourselves, No one is permitted to wear such an ornament unless the Bear 
