6 
THE ZOO IN A FROST 
the six-months-old cubs have been sold for from 
& S6oo to ^iooo. Of the Polar bears, one, the older 
and larger, seems disposed to follow the example of 
the brown and black species, and to doze through the 
cold weather. The she-bear, much smaller and 
younger than its mate, takes its bath as usual, and 
plays with the floating ice like a baby with the soap. 
There it exhibits the most astonishing antics, turning 
back-somersaults, and standing on its head, or flinging 
out plates of ice with its nose and paws. No creature 
suggests such perfect indifference to cold as this 
Arctic bear, with icicles hanging to its fur, as it 
plunges again and again into its freezing bath. 
The beavers are, of course, invisible, having long 
ago provided against the frost by plastering the wooden 
sides of the new house with mud and turf, and dragged 
a supply of dead branches as far as they could be 
forced to enter the narrow door. Though they are 
fed every day, and have nothing to fear from the 
weather, the instinct of winter storage is as strong as 
in the wild state. One is tempted to speculate whether 
this prudence is accompanied by any rational know- 
ledge of the probable inadequacy of their stock to 
meet their natural wants. If their sense of quantity 
bears any proportion to their industry and skill in 
engineering, they must be full of anxiety and mis- 
givings, for the few branches given to them are only 
make-believe, and they are wholly dependent on their 
captors for food. For some reason the rare European 
beavers, from the banks of the Rhone, have not 
