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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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polar bear (Ursus maritimus), which is somewhat equal in size, probably superior. When I was in California, experienced informants assured me that no true grizzly bear was to be found east of the Pacific slope, and that Lord Coke was the only Britisher who had ever killed a real grizzly in California. There are numerous bears of three if not four varieties in the Rocky Mountains, and these are frequently termed grizzlies, as a misnomer; but the true grizzly is far superior in size, although similar in habits, and his weight varies from 1200 to 1400 lbs. Mr. Lamont, in his interesting work Yachting in the Arctic Seas, gives the most accurate account of all Arctic animals that he killed, and having the advantage of his own yacht, he was able to weigh the various beasts, and thus afford the most valuable information in detail. This is his account of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) which he himself killed :- "He was so large and heavy that we had to fix the ice-anchor, and drag him up with block and tackle, as if he had been a walrus. This was an enormous old male bear, and measured upwards of 8 feet in length, almost as much in circumference, and 4 1/2 feet at the shoulder; his fore paws were 34 inches in circumference, and had very long, sharp, and powerful nails; his hair was beautifully thick, long, and white, and hung several inches over his feet. He was in very high condition, and produced nearly 400 lbs. of fat; his skin weighed upwards of 100 lbs., and the entire carcase of the animal cannot have been less than 1600 lbs." This weight is equivalent to a large-sized English cart-horse. I have seen one of the skins procured by Mr. Lamont, and I can readily appreciate his account of the weight. I have also seen a skin of a grizzly bear killed at Alaska by Sir Thomas Hesketh; this was cured by Mr. Rowland Ward, who showed it to me at his establishment, 160 Piccadilly, and it was very little inferior to the skin of the polar bear. I quite believe the accounts I have received in California are correct, and that the grizzly may sometimes exceed 1400 lbs. in weight. There is a considerable difference in size between the male and female, the former being superior. Like all other animals, the mother is particularly attached to her young, and when in company with them she is more than ordinarily ferocious, as she appears to suspect every stranger of some hostile intentions towards her offspring. The increase of population in many countries has resulted in the destruction of all animals that were considered dangerous to man; thus the wolf and the bear have both disappeared from Great Britain, and they have become scarce in France. Thirty-five years ago, I was in a wild portion of the Pyrenees, in the hope of finding bears at the first snows of winter, when by extreme bad luck a fall took place so suddenly and severe that a pass was blocked, which prevented my arrival at a narrow valley, between the lofty mountains named Tram-Saig. I had been assured that the bears would hybernate at the commencement of winter, and that they could only be found at the season when the first snow-fall would expose their tracks. On the following day I managed to get through the pass, and to my intense disgust, upon arrival, I found that I was a day too late, as the Maire, who was a great chasseur, had killed two bears, a mother and half-grown young one, on the preceding day, thus verifying the information I had received. I saw the freshly killed skins pegged out to dry, and a few days later I ate a portion of the paws in an excellent stew when dining with the Prefect of Bagneres-de-Bigorre, to whom they were forwarded as an esteemed present. The larger bear-skin gave me the impression that the original owner must have been the size of a heifer twelve or fifteen months old. This was the ordinary brown bear of Europe, which still exists in Transylvania, Hungary, Italy, and especially in Turkey. The same bear inhabits Asia Minor, and both these varieties hybernate at the commencement of winter. In the extensive forests and mountains about Sabanja, beyond the Gulf of Ismid, I have seen the wild fruit trees severely injured by the brown bears, which ascend in search of cherries, plums, apples, walnuts, and sweet chestnuts. The heavy animal knows full well that the extremity of the boughs will not support its weight, it therefore stands erect upon a strong limb and tears down the smaller fruit-laden branches within its reach. Although bears are numerous throughout the forests, there is only one season when they can be successfully hunted; this is in late autumn, when the fruits are closing their maturity, and the apples and nuts are falling to the ground. The bears then descend from the mountain heights, and may be found late in the evening or before sunrise in the neighbourhood of such food. Asia Minor and Syria possess two distinct varieties of bears, although the countries are closely connected, and these animals are not inhabitants of the same district. The Syrian bear is smaller than the ordinary brown bear, and would hardly exceed 300 lbs. in weight. The fur is a mixed and disagreeable colour, a dusky gray of somewhat rusty appearance, but blanched in portions as though by age. This species is to be found at the present day upon Mount Horeb, and the natives assured me that, when the grapes are ripe, it is necessary to protect them by watchers armed with guns, to scare the bears during night. Wild animals which hybernate have a peculiar instinct for selecting hiding-places, which can seldom be discovered; in these they lie, free from all intrusion. 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 hybernation in November, and again be introduced to its own photograph upon awakening from its

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