THE BEARS I13 
to illustrate a theory of his, that the killing of wild 
animals by other animals is not a painful one. 
Rustem Pasha, once Turkish Ambassador in 
England, had an accident when brown bear shoot- 
ing in Russia, and writes of it in the same sense: 
“When I met the accident alluded to, the bear 
injured both my hands, but did not tear off part of 
the arm or shoulder. In the moment of desperate 
struggle, the intense excitement and anger did, in 
fact, render me insensible to the feeling of actual 
pain as the bear gnawed my left hand, which was 
badly torn and perforated with holes, most of the 
bones being broken.” 
There is good reason to believe that when 
large carnivora, or beasts large in proportion to the 
size of their victims, strike and kill them with a 
great previous shock, the sense of pain is deadened. 
Not so if the person or animal is seized quietly. 
Then the pain is intense, though sometimes only 
momentary. <A tigress seized Mr. J. Hansard, a 
forest officer in Ceylon, by the neck. In describing 
: CL his sensations afterwards, he said: “ The agony I 
Photo by Fratelli Alinari] [Floren.e ‘ : 
POLAR BEARS felt was something frightful. My whole skull seemed 
Though Arctic animals, polar bears can endure great heat. as if it were being crushed to atoms in the jaws of 
’ at Hamburg, Herr C. Hagenbeck the great brute. I certainly felt the most awful pain 
found two of his leopards suffering from heat apoplexy, but the as she was biting my neck; but not afterwards, if I 
pee EE ies can remember.” Sir Samuel Baker says he has 
twice seen the sloth-bear attack a howdah-elephant. Lord Edward St. Maur, son of the Duke 
of Somerset, was killed by one. Mr. Sanderson, the head of the Government Elephant-catching 
Department, used to hunt bears in the jungle with bull-terriers. Against these the bear was 
unable to make a good fight. They seized it by the nose; and as its claws were not sharp like 
those of the leopard, the bear could not get them off. 
This bear seldom produces more than two or three young ata birth. The young cub is 
very ugly, but very strong, especially in the claws and legs. A six weeks’ old cub has been 
turned upside-down in a basket, which was shaken violently, without dislodging the little animal 
clinging inside. 
During « ‘‘heat wave’ 
Tue IsaBELLINE BEAR AND HIMALAYAN BLACK BEar. 
The former animal is a medium-sized variety of the brown bear. The coat in winter is of a 
beautiful silver-tipped cinnamon colour. The Himatayan Brack Bear has a half-moon of white on 
its throat. The habits of both do not differ markedly from those of the brown bear of Europe. 
Recently black bears have been most troublesome in Kashmir, attacking and killing and 
wounding the wood-cutters with no provocation. Dr. E. T. Vere, writing from Srinagar, says: 
“ Every year we have about half a dozen patients who have been mauled by bears. Most of our 
people who are hurt are villagers or shepherds. Bears have been so shot at in Kashmir that, 
although not naturally very fierce, they have become truculent. When they attack men, they 
usually sit up and knock the victim over with a paw. They then make one or two bites at the 
arm or leg, and often finish up with a snap at the head. This is the most dangerous part of the 
attack. One of our fatal cases this year was a boy, the vault of whose skull was torn off and 
lacerated. Another man received a Compound fracture of the cranium. A third had the bones 
