As already stated, it is the custom of the brown bear, as well as of
several other species, to go to sleep for a period of several months
every winter,--in other words, to _hybernate_. When about to take this
long nap, the bear seeks for himself a cave or den, in which he makes
his bed with such soft substances as may be most convenient--dry leaves,
grass, moss, or rushes. He collects no great store of these however--
his thick matted fur serving him alike for bed and coverlet; and very
often he makes no further ado about the matter than to creep into the
hole he has chosen, lie down, snugly couch his head among the thickets
of long hair that cover his hams, and thus go to sleep.
Some naturalists have asserted that this sleep is a state of torpidity--
from which the animal is incapable of awaking himself or of being
awakened, until the regular period of indulgence in it may have passed.
This, however, is not the case; for bears are often surprised in their
sleep, and when aroused by the hunters act just as is usual with them at
other times.
It must be observed, however, that the retirement of the bear into
winter quarters is not to be regarded as of the same nature as the
hybernation of marmots, squirrels, and other species of rodent animals.
These creatures merely shut themselves up from the cold; and to meet the
exigencies of their voluntary imprisonment, they have already collected
in their cells a large store of their usual food. Bees and many other
insects do precisely same thing. Not so with the bear. Whether it be
that he is not gifted with an instinct of providence it is difficult to
say; but certain it is, that he lays up no store for these long dark
days, but goes to sleep without thought of the morrow.
How he is maintained for several months without eating is one of
nature's mysteries. Every one has heard the absurd theory: that he does
so by "sucking his paws," and the ingenious Buffon has not only given
credence to this story, but endeavours to support it, by stating that
the paws when cut open yield a substance of a milky nature!
It is a curious fact that this story is to be found scattered all over
the world--wherever bears hybernate. The people of Kamschatka have it;
so also the Indians, and Esquimaux of the Hudson's Bay territory, and
the Norwegian and Lap hunters of Europe. Whence did these
widely-distributed races of men derive this common idea of a habit
which, if the story be a true one, must be common to bears of very
different species?
This question can be answered. In northern Europe the idea first
originated--among the hunters of Scandinavia. But the odd story once
told was too good to be lost; and every traveller, since the first
teller of it, has taken care to embellish his narrative about bears with
this selfsame conceit; so that, like the tale of the Amazon women in
South America, the natives have learnt it from the travellers, and not
the travellers from the natives!
How absurd to suppose that a huge quadruped, whose daily food would be
several pounds weight of animal or vegetable matter--a bear who can
devour the carcass of a calf at a single meal--could possibly subsist
for two months on the _paw-milk_ which Monsieur Buffon has described!
How then can we account for his keeping alive? There need be no
difficulty in doing so. It is quite possible that during this long
sleep the digestive power or process is suspended, or only carried on at
a rate infinitesimally small; that, moreover, life is sustained and the
blood kept in action by means of the large amount of fat which the bear
has collected previous to his _going to bed_. It is certain that, just
at their annual _bed time_, bears are fatter than at any other season of
the year. The ripening of the forest fruits, and the falling of various
seeds of mast-worts, upon which, during the autumn, bears principally
subsist, then supply them with abundance, and nothing hinders them to
get fat and go to sleep upon it. They would have no object in keeping
awake: were they to do so, in those countries where they practise
hybernation, they would certainly starve, for, the ground being then
frozen hard, they could not dig for roots, and under the deep covering
of snow they might search in vain for their masts and berries. As to
foraging on birds or other quadrupeds, bears are not fitted for that.
They are not agile enough for such a purpose.
They will eat both when they can catch them; but they cannot always
catch them; and if they had no other resource in the snowy season the
bears would certainly starve. To provide them against this time of
scarcity, nature has furnished them with the singular power of
somnolence. Indeed, that this is the purpose is easily proved. It is
proved by the simple fact that those bears belonging to warm latitudes,
as the Bornean, Malayan, and even the black American of the Southern
States, do not hybernate at all. There is no need for them to do so.
Their unfrozen forests furnish them with food all the year round; and
all the year round are they seen roaming about in search of it. Even in
the Arctic lands the polar bear keeps afoot all the year; his diet not
being vegetable, and therefore not snowed up in winter. The female of
this species hides herself away; but that is done for another purpose,
and not merely to save herself from starvation.
That the stock of fat, which the bear lays in before going to sleep, has
something to do with subsisting him, is very evident from the fact that
it is all gone by the time he awakes. Then or shortly afterwards,
master Bruin finds himself as thin as a rail; and were he to look in a
glass just then, he would scarce recognise himself, so very different is
his long emaciated carcass from that huge plump round body, that two
months before he could scarce squeeze through the entrance to his cave!
Another great change comes over him during his prolonged sleep. On
going to bed, he is not only very fat, but also very lazy; so much so
that the merest tyro of a hunter can then circumvent and slay him.
Naturally a well-disposed animal--we are speaking only of the brown bear
(_ursus arctos_) though the remark will hold good of several other
species--he is at this period more than usually civil and soft-tempered.
He has found a sufficiency of vegetable food which is more congenial to
his taste than animal substances; and he will not molest living creature
just then, if living creature will only let him alone. Aroused from his
sleep, however, he shows a different disposition. He appears as if he
had got up "wrong side foremost." His head aches, his belly hungers,
and he is disposed to believe that some one has stolen upon him while
asleep, and robbed him of his suet. Under this impression he issues
from his dark chamber in very ill humour indeed. This disposition
clings to him for a length of time; and if at this period, during his
morning rambles, he should encounter any one who does not get speedily
out of his way, the party thus meeting him will find him a very awkward
customer. It is then that he makes havoc among the flocks and herds of
the Scandinavian shepherd--for he actually does commit such ravages--and
even the hunter who meets him at this season will do well to "ware
bear."
And so does the hunter; and so did Alexis, and Ivan, and Pouchskin. All
three of them were well enough acquainted with the habits of the bear--
their own Russian bear--to know that they should act with caution in
approaching him.
And in this wise they acted; for instead of rushing up to the mouth of
the hole, and making a great riot, they stole forward in perfect
silence, each holding his gun cocked, and ready to give Bruin a salute,
the moment he should show his snout beyond the portals of his den.
Had they not tracked him to his cave, they would have acted quite
differently. Had they found a bear's den--within which they knew that
the animal was indulging in his winter sleep--they would not have cared
so much how they approached it. Then he would have required a good deal
of stirring up to induce him to show himself, so that they could get a
shot at him; but the track told them that this one had been up and
abroad--perhaps for several days--and as the new snow, in all
likelihood, had hindered him from picking up much to eat, he would be as
"savage as a meat axe."
Expecting him to spring out almost on the instant, the three took stand
at some distance from the mouth of the cave; and, with arms in
readiness, awaited his coming forth.