CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 
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niiling of tlie bear-den was thronged witli men, women, and children, and the cry of " Martin ! 
Martin !" Avas heard on all sides. The creature knew his name, and at the call, performed his 
various feats of grimacing, tumbling, and attitudinizing. But this was not his only claim to 
celebritj^ Some hard stories were told about him, one of which was as follows • The night sentry, 
looking down into the fosse while the bear was asleep in his lair, observed in the flickering- 
light what he thought was a twenty-franc gold piece upon the stone floor. He got a ladder 
and went down, but was disappointed to find that the supposed coin was a brass suspender-button, 
He uttered a cry, upon which the bear, aroused from his slumber, descended in his usual agile 
manner, and made a hearty meal upon the unfortunate veteran! This is as the story was told, 
but the fact was, that the man was found dead in the morning, with Bruin sitting by him. He 
probably fell from the ladder, and was killed outright in the fall. However, the aft'air made a 
tremendous sensation in Paris, and one of the ballads composed upon the event, has obtained 
a place in the permanent popular literature of France. 
In general, bears are heavy animals, and strictly plantigrade in their walk, which is awkward 
and shuffling ; the anterior limbs are, however, possessed of great mobility, and many of them 
manifest much dexterity in climbing. Their feet are armed with long curved claws, with which 
they dig in search of roots and other articles of food. Their bodies are usually covered with 
long shaggy hair, the tail being remarkably short. The ears are small, and the nose is more or 
less produced and movable, in some species forming a sort of proboscis. 
Bears are generally inhabitants of the wooded districts in mountainous countries. They feed 
principally upon vegetable substances, such as roots and berries ; they also devour worms and 
insects, especially ants; and now and then make a meal upon some of the smaller Mammalia, 
when these come in their way. Their partiality for honey has been already mentioned ; in some 
places they manifest a fondness for fish. Bears are hunted principally for the sake of their 
skin and fat; the latter being extensively used as an application to the hair. Their flesh is 
eaten, and the broad paws are regarded as a dainty morsel ; the hams, when cured, are also in 
great repute. Some of the species lie in a dormant state during the winter season. 
The Brown Bear, Urms Arctos, is the Ours of the French, Orso of the Italians, Bar of the 
Germans, Bjorn of the Swedes. It is the common bear of Europe, and is widely diff'used. The 
mountainous districts of Europe, from very high latitudes in the north, to the Alps and Pyrenees 
in the south ; Siberia, Kamstchatka, and even Japan, to the eastward, and a portion of the 
northern regions of America, form the range of its geographical distribution. 
To the Kamstchatkans this bear seems to furnish the necessaries and even the comforts of life. 
The skin, we are told, forms their beds and their coverlets, bonnets for their heads, gloves for 
their hands, and collars for their dogs ; while an overall made of it, and drawn over the soles 
of their shoes, prevents them from slipping on the ice. 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 Laplanders hold it in great veneration, and call it the JDoff of God. It appears that there 
has long been among the Norwegians a proverb, that the bear has the strength of ten men and 
the sense of twelve. They never presume to call it by its proper name of Guouzkja, lest it 
should revenge the insult on their flocks ; but make mention of it as Moedda-Aigja, the Old Man 
rvith a Fur Cloak. These superstitions remind us of those respecting the bear among our North 
American Indians. 
The brown bear is four to five feet in length by two and a half in height. It is a solitary 
animal : its retreat during the period of hibernation is the natural hollow of a tree, or some 
cavern ; and if these are not to be found, the animal constructs a habitation for itself, sometimes 
l)y digging, sometimes by forming a rude kind of hut or den with branches of trees, lined with 
moss. Here it retires when fat with the summer's food, and remains dormant, without taking 
any sustenance, till the ensuing spring. The period of gestation is about seven months, the 
birth taking place in January. The cubs when first born are not much larger than puppies. 
The animals are long lived, for it appears that one at Berne had been confined there thirty-one 
