THE BEAR. 
401 
about the operations of reading and wri¬ 
ting, ” said Miss Winston, “and will watch 
the pen or the book for a long while with 
great interest, sometimes seeming really an¬ 
noyed at being unable to comprehend what 
it is all about. The spectacled bear is found 
in the Andes, and is remarkable for having 
the nose yellow, and a circle of the same 
extending round the eye, leaving the orbit 
black. The barren-ground bear is larger 
than the black bear, and more resembles 
the brown bear of Europe. It inhabits the 
barren and desolate regions that lie between 
the last forests upon the continent of Ame¬ 
rica and the Arctic Circle, and forms the 
principal article of food and commerce to 
the tribes that roam over those desolate 
tracts. 
“The grisly bear is to the other bears 
what the lion and tiger are to the smaller 
felines, and is the most to be dreaded of any 
wild animal of the American continent, 
except perhaps the jaguar of South America. 
Its immense strength, which seems to equal 
that of the lion, its ferocity, its great tenacity 
of life, and its power of swimming, combine 
to make it an object of dread to hunters in 
34 * 
