348 
IVILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
The fruits of late autumn fatten the bear to a 
maximum condition, and when the harvest is over, 
and the ground is covered with a dense sheet of 
snow, it retires to some well-known cave, high 
among the mountains, in such undisturbed seclusion 
that it is seldom visited by the foot of man. 
Within a cave, nestled in ferns or withered leaves 
and grass, the fatted bruin curls itself to sleep 
throughout the winter months, and the warmth 
necessary to its existence is supplied by its own 
fat, which, being rich in carbon, supports vitality 
at the expense of exhaustion of supply. 
If the fat bear could see itself previous to hyber¬ 
nation in November, and again be introduced to its 
own photograph upon awakening from its sleep in 
March, it would be prepared to swear against its 
own identity. It arises from its winter’s nap in 
wretched condition, having lived entirely upon 
capital instead of income. Young shoots, and 
leaves of spring, wild tubers which it scratches from 
the ground, detected by its keen sense of smell, 
together with snails, beetles, worms, and everything 
that creeps upon the earth, now form the bill of fare, 
until the summer brings forth the welcome fruits 
that reproduce the condition which the bear had 
lost through hybernation. 
It is impossible to unravel many of the mysteries 
of Nature, and the cause which prompts the instinct 
of a winter’s sleep will always remain doubtful. I 
should myself attribute hybernation to the necessity 
of repose at a period when food was impossible to 
