_THE BEARS._
Except the great cats, no creatures have longer held a place in human
interest than the BEARS. Their size and formidable equipment of claws and
teeth give the touch of fear which goes with admiration. On the other hand,
they do not, as a rule, molest human beings, who see them employing their
great strength on apparently insignificant objects with some amusement.
Except one species, most bears are largely fruit and vegetable feeders. The
sloth-bear of India sucks up ants and grubs with its funnel-like lips; the
Malayan bear is a honey-eater by profession, scarcely touching other food
when it can get the bees' store; and only the great polar bear is entirely
carnivorous. The grizzly bear of the Northern Rocky Mountains is largely a
flesh-eater, consuming great quantities of putrid salmon in the Columbian
rivers. But the ice-bear is ever on the quest for living or dead flesh; it
catches seals, devours young sea-fowl and eggs, and can actually kill and
eat the gigantic walrus.
[Illustration: _Photo by Ottomar Anschütz, Berlin._
AN INVITING ATTITUDE.
The upright position is not natural to the brown bear. It prefers to sit on
its hams, and not to stand.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Fratelli Alinari_] [_Florence._
THREE PERFORMING BEARS.
Those on the right and left are Himalayan black bears. The white collar is
plainly seen.]
Every one will have noticed the deliberate flat-footed walk of the bears.
This is due partly to the formation of the feet themselves. The whole sole
is set flat upon the ground, and the impressions in a bear's track are not
unlike those of a man's footsteps. The claws are not capable of being
retracted, like those of the Cats; consequently they are worn at the tips
where the curve brings them in contact with the ground. Yet it is
surprising what wounds these blunt but hard weapons will inflict on
man--wounds resembling what might be caused by the use of a very large
garden-rake. Against other animals protected by hair bears' claws are of
little use. Dogs would never attack them so readily as they do were they
armed with the talons of a leopard or tiger. The flesh-teeth in both jaws
of the bear are unlike those of other carnivora. The teeth generally show
that bears have a mixed diet. Bears appear to have descended from some
dog-like ancestor, but to have been much modified.
[Illustration: _Photo by Ottomar Anschütz_] [_Berlin._
EUROPEAN BROWN BEAR.
The specimen of the brown bear of Europe from which this picture was taken
was an unusually light and active bear. Its flanks are almost flat.]
Except the ice-bear, all the species are short and very bulky. It is said
that a polar bear has been killed which weighed 1,000 lbs. It is far the
largest, and most formidable in some respects, of all the Carnivora. The
claws of the grizzly bear are sometimes 5 inches long over the outer curve.
All bears can sit upright on their hams, and stand upright against a
support like a tree. Some can stand upright with no aid at all. Except the
grizzly bear, they can all climb, many of them very well. In the winter, if
it be cold, they hibernate. In the spring, when the shoots of the early
plants come up, they emerge, hungry and thin, to seek their food. Bears
were formerly common in Britain, and were exported for the Roman
amphitheatres. The prehistoric cave-bears were very large. Their remains
have been found in Devon, Derbyshire, and other counties. The species
inhabiting Britain during the Roman period was the common brown bear of
Europe.
THE COMMON BROWN BEAR.
Only one species of bear is found in Europe south of the ice-line, though
above it the white ice-bear inhabits Spitzbergen and the islands off the
White Sea. This is the BROWN BEAR, the emblem of Russia in all European
caricature, and the hero of innumerable fragments of folklore and fable,
from the tents of the Lapps to the nurseries of English children. Except
the ice-bear, it is far the largest of European carnivora, but varies much
in size. Russia is the main home of the brown bear, but it is found in
Sweden and Norway, and right across Northern Asia. It is also common in the
Carpathian Mountains, in the Caucasus, and in Mount Pindus in Greece. In
the south it is found in Spain and the Pyrenees, and a few are left in the
Alps. The dancing-bears commonly brought to England are caught in the
Pyrenees. The "Queen's bear," so called because its owner was allowed to
exhibit it at Windsor, was one of these. But lately dancing-bears from
Servia and Wallachia have also been seen about our roads and streets. In
Russia the bear grows to a great size. Some have been killed of 800 lbs. in
weight. The fur is magnificent in winter, and in great demand for rich
Russians' sledge-rugs. The finest bear-skins of all are bought for the caps
of our own Grenadier and Coldstream Guards. In the Alps the bears
occasionally visit a cow-shed in winter and kill a cow; but as a rule the
only damage done by those in Europe is to the sheep on the hills in the far
north of Norway. Tame brown bears are amusing creatures, but should never
be trusted. They are always liable to turn savage, and the bite is almost
as severe as that of a tiger. Men have had their heads completely crushed
in by the bite of one of these animals. In Russia bears are shot in the
following manner. When the snow falls, the bears retire into the densest
thickets, and there make a half-hut, half-burrow in the most tangled part
to hibernate in. The bear is tracked, and then a ring made round the cover
by beaters and peasants. The shooters follow the track and rouse the bear,
which often charges them, and is forthwith shot. If it escapes, it is
driven in by the beaters outside. High fees are paid to peasants who send
information that a bear is harboured in this way. Sportsmen in St.
Petersburg will go 300 or 400 miles to shoot one on receipt of a telegram.
The brown bear, like the reindeer and red deer, is found very little
modified all across Northern Asia, and again in the forests of North
America. There, however, it undergoes a change. Just as the red deer is
found represented by a much larger creature, the wapiti, so the brown bear
is found exaggerated into the great bear of Alaska. The species attains its
largest, possibly, in Kamchatka, on the Asiatic side of Bering Sea; but the
Alaskan bear has the credit with sportsmen of being the largest. A skin of
one of the former, brought to the sale-rooms of Sir Charles Lampson & Co.,
needed two men to carry it. Last spring, in the sale-rooms of the same
great firm, some persons present measured the skin of an Alaskan bear which
was 9 feet across the shoulders from paw to paw.
[Illustration: _Photo by E. Landor_] [_Ealing._
SYRIAN BEAR.
This is the bear generally alluded to in the Old Testament.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando_] [_Regent's Park._
LARGE RUSSIAN BROWN BEAR.
The picture shows to what a size and strength the brown bear attains.]
THE GRIZZLY BEAR.
This is a very distinct race of brown bear. It has a flat profile, like the
polar bear; in addition it grows to a great size, is barely able to climb
trees, and has the largest claws of any--they have been known to measure 5
inches along the curve. The true grizzly, which used to be found as far
north as 61° latitude and south as far as Mexico, is a rare animal now. Its
turn for cattle-killing made the ranchmen poison it, and rendered the task
an easy one. It is now only found in the Northern Rocky Mountains, and
perhaps in North California and Nevada. Formerly encounters with "Old
Ephraim," as the trappers called this bear, were numerous and deadly. It
attacked men if attacked by them, and often without provocation. The horse,
perhaps more than its rider, was the object of the bear. Lewis and Clarke
measured a grizzly which was 9 feet long from nose to tail. The weight
sometimes reaches 800 lbs. Measurements of much larger grizzly bears have
been recorded, but it is difficult to credit them. On a ranche near the
upper waters of the Colorado River several colts were taken by grizzly
bears. One of them was found buried according to the custom of this bear,
and the owner sat up to shoot the animal. Having only the old-fashioned
small-bored rifle of the day, excellent for shooting deer or Indians, but
useless against so massive a beast as this bear, unless hit in the head or
heart, he only wounded it. The bear rushed in, struck him a blow with its
paw (the paw measures a foot across), smashed the rifle which he held up as
a protection, and struck the barrel on to his head. The man fell
insensible, when the bear, having satisfied himself that he was dead,
picked him up, carried him off, and buried him in another hole which it
scratched near the dead colt. It then dug up the colt and ate part of it,
and went off. Some time later the man came to his senses, and awoke to find
himself "dead and buried." As the earth was only roughly thrown over him,
he scrambled out, and saw close by the half-eaten remains of the colt.
Thinking that it might be about the bear's dinner-time, and remembering
that he was probably put by in the larder for the next meal, he hurried
home at once, and did not trouble the bear again. Not so a Siberian
peasant, who had much the same adventure. He had been laughed at for
wishing to shoot a bear, and went out into the woods to do so. The bear had
the best of it, knocked him down, and so frightfully mangled his arm that
he fainted. Bruin then buried him in orthodox bear fashion; and the man,
when he came to, which he fortunately did before the bear came back, got
up, and made his way to the village. There he was for a long time ill, and
all through his sickness and delirium talked of nothing but shooting the
bear. When he got well, he disappeared into the forest with his gun, and
after a short absence returned with the bear's skin!
[Illustration: _Photo by New York Zoological Society._
AMERICAN BLACK BEAR.
The black bear was the species first encountered by the early settlers on
the Atlantic side of America. The grizzly belongs to the Rocky Mountain
region.]
THE AMERICAN BROWN BEAR.
The brown bear of America is closely allied to that of Europe; it was first
described by Sir John Richardson, who called it the Barrenlands Bear, and
noted, quite rightly, that it differed from the grizzly in the smallness of
its claws. The difference in the profile is very marked--the brown bear
having a profile like that of the European bear, while that of the grizzly
is flat. The brown bear of North America lives largely on the fruits and
berries of the northern plants, on dead deer, and on putrid fish, of which
quantities are left on the banks of the northern rivers. Whether the large
brown bear of the Rocky Mountains is always a grizzly or often this less
formidable race is doubtful. The writer inclines to think that it is only
the counterpart of the North European and the North Asiatic brown bear. The
following is Sir Samuel Baker's account of these bears. He says: "When I
was in California, experienced informants told 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 kinds in the Rocky Mountains. These are
frequently termed grizzlies; but it is a misnomer. The true grizzly is far
superior in size, but of similar habits, and its weight is from 1,200 lbs.
to 1,400 lbs." After giving various reasons for believing this to be a fair
weight, Sir Samuel Baker adds that this weight is equivalent to that of an
English cart-horse. There are certainly three Rocky Mountain bears--the
Grizzly, the Brown, and the small Black Bear. There is probably also
another--a cross between the black and the brown. It is ridiculous to say
that the brown bears which come to eat the refuse on the dust-heaps of the
hotels in the Yellowstone Park, and let ladies photograph them, are savage
grizzly bears.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S._] [_North Finchley._
YOUNG SYRIAN BEAR FROM THE CAUCASUS.
This is, properly speaking, a Syrian bear, but the species is found in the
Caucasus and in the Taurus Range.]
THE SYRIAN BEAR.
This bear, which figures in the story of Elisha, is a variety of the brown
bear. It is found from the Caucasus to the mountains of Palestine, and is a
smaller animal than the true brown bear, weighing about 300 lbs. The fur in
summer is of a mixed rusty colour, with a whitish collar on the chest. It
steals the grapes on Mount Horeb, and feeds upon ripe fruits, apples,
chestnuts, corn, and the like. It is then ready to face the long winter
sleep.
THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR.
This is the smallest North American species, and perhaps the most harmless.
It seldom weighs more than 400 lbs. Its coat is short and glossy, and its
flesh, especially in autumn, is esteemed for food. The early backwoodsmen
found it a troublesome neighbour. The bears liked Indian corn, and were not
averse to a young pig. "Like the deer," says Audubon, "it changes its
haunts with the seasons, and for the same reason--viz. the desire of
obtaining food. During the spring months it searches for food in the low
alluvial lands that border the rivers, or by the margins of the inland
lakes. There it procures abundance of succulent roots, and of the tender,
juicy stems of plants, upon which it chiefly feeds at that season. During
the summer heat it enters the gloomy swamps, and passes much of its time in
wallowing in the mud like a hog, and contents itself with crayfish, roots,
and nettles; now and then, when hard pressed by hunger, it seizes a young
pig, or perhaps a sow or calf. As soon as the different kinds of berries
ripen, the bears betake themselves to the high grounds, followed by their
cubs. In much-retired parts of the country, where there are no hilly
grounds, it pays visits to the maize-fields, which it ravages for a while.
After this the various kinds of nuts and grapes, acorns and other forest
fruits, attract its attention. The black bear is then seen wandering
through the woods to gather this harvest, not forgetting to rob every tree
which it comes across."
THE INDIAN SLOTH-BEAR.
Few people would believe that this awkward and ugly beast is so formidable
as it is. It is the commonest Indian species, seldom eats flesh, prefers
sucking up the contents of a white ants' nest to any other meal, and is not
very large; from 200 lbs. to 300 lbs. is the weight of a male. But the
skull and jaws are very strong, and the claws long and curved. As they are
used almost like a pickaxe when the bear wishes to dig in the hardest soil,
their effect upon the human body can be imagined.
Sir Samuel Baker says that there are more accidents to natives of India and
Ceylon from this species than from any other animal.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
A BROWN BEAR IN SEARCH OF INSECTS.
The photograph shows a bear feeding on insects, possibly large ants, which
he licks up from the ground, after scratching them out with his claws.]
Mr. Watts Jones writes an interesting account of his sensations while being
bitten by one of these bears: "I was following up a bear which I had
wounded, and rashly went to the mouth of a cave to which it had got. It
charged. I shot, but failed to stop it. I do not know exactly what happened
next, neither does my hunter who was with me; but I believe, from the marks
in the snow, that in his rush the bear knocked me over backwards--in fact,
knocked me three or four feet away. When next I remember anything, the
bear's weight was on me, and he was biting my leg. He bit, two or three
times. I felt the flesh crush, but I felt no pain at all. It was rather
like having a tooth out with gas. I felt no particular terror, though I
thought the bear had got me; but in a hazy sort of way I wondered when he
would kill me, and thought what a fool I was to get killed by a stupid
beast like a bear. The shikari then very pluckily came up and fired a shot
into the bear, and he left me. I felt the weight lift off me, and got up. I
did not think I was much hurt.... The main wound was a flap of flesh torn
out of the inside of my left thigh and left hanging. It was fairly deep,
and I could see all the muscles working underneath when I lifted it up to
clean the wound." This anecdote was sent to Mr. J. Crowther Hirst to
illustrate a theory of his, that the killing of wild animals by other
animals is not a painful one.
Rustem Pasha, once Turkish Ambassador in England, had an accident when
brown bear shooting in Russia, and writes of it in the same sense: "When I
met the accident alluded to, the bear injured both my hands, but did not
tear off part of the arm or shoulder. In the moment of desperate struggle,
the intense excitement and anger did, in fact, render me insensible to the
feeling of actual pain as the bear gnawed my left hand, which was badly
torn and perforated with holes, most of the bones being broken."
There is good reason to believe that when large carnivora, or beasts large
in proportion to the size of their victims, strike and kill them with a
great previous shock, the sense of pain is deadened. Not so if the person
or animal is seized quietly. Then the pain is intense, though sometimes
only momentary. A tigress seized Mr. J. Hansard, a forest officer in
Ceylon, by the neck. In describing his sensations afterwards, he said: "The
agony I felt was something frightful. My whole skull seemed as if it were
being crushed to atoms in the jaws of the great brute. I certainly felt the
most awful pain as she was biting my neck; but not afterwards, if I can
remember." Sir Samuel Baker says he has twice seen the sloth-bear attack a
howdah-elephant. Lord Edward St. Maur, son of the Duke of Somerset, was
killed by one. Mr. Sanderson, the head of the Government Elephant-catching
Department, used to hunt bears in the jungle with bull-terriers. Against
these the bear was unable to make a good fight. They seized it by the nose;
and as its claws were not sharp like those of the leopard, the bear could
not get them off.
This bear seldom produces more than two or three young at a birth. The
young cub is very ugly, but very strong, especially in the claws and legs.
A six weeks' old cub has been turned upside-down in a basket, which was
shaken violently, without dislodging the little animal clinging inside.
[Illustration: _Photo by Fratelli Alinari_] [_Florence._
POLAR BEARS.
Though Arctic animals, polar bears can endure great heat. During a "heat
wave" at Hamburg, Herr C. Hagenbeck found two of his leopards suffering
from heat apoplexy, but the polar bears were enjoying the sun.]
THE ISABELLINE BEAR AND HIMALAYAN BLACK BEAR.
The former animal is a medium-sized variety of the brown bear. The coat in
winter is of a beautiful silver-tipped cinnamon colour. The HIMALAYAN BLACK
BEAR has a half-moon of white on its throat. The habits of both do not
differ markedly from those of the brown bear of Europe.
Recently black bears have been most troublesome in Kashmir, attacking and
killing and wounding the woodcutters with no provocation. Dr. E. T. Vere,
writing from Srinagar, says: "Every year we have about half a dozen
patients who have been mauled by bears. Most of our people who are hurt are
villagers or shepherds. Bears have been so shot at in Kashmir that,
although not naturally very fierce, they have become truculent. When they
attack men, they usually sit up and knock the victim over with a paw. They
then make one or two bites at the arm or leg, and often finish up with a
snap at the head. This is the most dangerous part of the attack. One of our
fatal cases this year was a boy, the vault of whose skull was torn off and
lacerated. Another man received a compound fracture of the cranium. A third
had the bones of his face smashed and lacerated. He had an axe, but said,
'When the bear sat up, my courage failed me.'"
[Illustration: _Photo by Fratelli Alinari_] [_Florence._
TWO POLAR BEARS AND A BROWN BEAR.
Although this is a photograph from life, it is scarcely a very natural
scene; as a matter of fact, all three animals belong to Herr Carl
Hagenbeck's remarkable menagerie.]
THE MALAYAN SUN-BEAR.
These small, smooth-coated bears have a yellow throat-patch like a mustard
plaster, and are altogether the most amusing and comical of all the tribe.
They are almost as smooth as a pointer dog, and are devoted to all sweet
substances which can be a substitute for honey, their main delicacy when
wild. There are always a number of these bears at the Zoo incessantly
begging for food. When one gets a piece of sugar, he cracks it into small
pieces, sticks them on the back of his paw, and licks the mess until the
paw is covered with sticky syrup, which he eats with great gusto. This bear
is found in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. It is only 4
feet high, or sometimes half a foot taller. It is more in the habit of
walking upright than any other species.
THE POLAR BEAR.
ICE-BEAR is the better name for this, the most interesting in its habits of
all the bears. It is an inhabitant of the lands of polar darkness and
intense cold, and one of the very few land animals which never try to avoid
the terrible ordeal of the long Arctic night, which rolls on from month to
month. It can swim and dive nearly as well as a seal, climbs the icebergs,
and goes voyages on the drifting ice, floating hundreds of miles on the
polar currents, and feeding on the seals which surround it. Of the limits
of size of the ice-bear it is impossible to speak with certainty. From the
skins brought to this country the size of some of them must be enormous.
One which lived for more than thirty years at the Zoo was of immense length
and bulk. When the first discoverers went to the Arctic Seas, dressed in
thick clothes and skins, the polar bears took them for seals. On Bear
Island, below Spitzbergen, a Dutch sailor sat down on the snow to rest. A
bear walked up behind him, and seized and crushed his head, evidently not
in the least aware of what kind of animal it had got hold of. When the
Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition was wintering in Franz-Josef Land, the bears
were a positive nuisance. They were not afraid of man, and used to come
round the huts at all hours. The men shot so many that they formed a
valuable article of food for the dogs. The flesh is said to be unwholesome
for men. The power of these bears in the water is wonderful; though so
bulky, they are as light as a cork when swimming, and their strong, broad
feet are first-class paddles. Whenever a dead whale is found near the
shore, the polar bears assemble to feed upon it. In the various searches
for the Franklin Expedition they pulled to pieces nearly all the cabins
erected to hold provisions for the sledge-parties. In one case it was found
that the bears had amused themselves by mounting the roof of a half-buried
hut, and sliding down the snowy, frozen slope. Cubs are often brought home
in whaling- and sealing-ships, after the mothers have been shot. There is a
ready sale of them for Continental menageries. Herr Hagenbeck, of Hamburg,
by purchasing them quite young, has induced bears to live on good terms
with tigers, boar-hounds, and leopards.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. W. McLellan_] [_Highbury._
POLAR BEAR.
This bear is the most formidable of all aquatic mammals. It is almost as
much at home in the water as a seal.]
The manoeuvres of an ice-bear in the water are marvellous to watch. Though
so bulky a beast, it swims, dives, rolls over and over, catches seals or
fish, or plays both on and under the water with an ease and evident
enjoyment which show that it is in its favourite element. One favourite
game of the ice-bear is to lie on its back in the water, and then to catch
hold of its hind toes with its fore feet, when it resembles a half-rolled
hedgehog of gigantic size. It then rolls over and over in the water like a
revolving cask. Its footsteps are absolutely noiseless, as the claws are
shorter than in the land-bear's, and more muffled in fur. This noiseless
power of approach is very necessary when it has to catch such wary
creatures as basking seals. A very large proportion of the food formerly
eaten by ice-bears in summer was probably putrid, as they were always
supplied with a quantity of the refuse carcases of whales and seals left by
the whaling-ships. This may account for the bad results to the sailors who
ate the bears' flesh. Now the whaling industry is so little pursued that
the bears have to catch their dinners for themselves, and eat fresh food.
[Illustration: _Photo by the New York Zoological Society._
HALF-GROWN POLAR BEARS.
When young polar bears are brought to England or New York on board ship,
they arrive with coats almost as yellow as a sponge. It takes a week's
bathing to restore the pure white colour.]
The Arctic explorer Nordenskiöld saw much of the ice-bears on his voyages,
and left us what is perhaps the best description of their attempts to stalk
men, mistaking them for other animals. "When the polar bear observes a
man," he writes in his "Voyage of the Vega," "he commonly approaches him as
a possible prey, with supple movements and a hundred zigzag bends, in order
to conceal the direction he means to take, and to prevent the man feeling
frightened. During his approach he often climbs up on to blocks of ice, or
raises himself on his hind legs, in order to get a more extensive view. If
he thinks he has to do with a seal, he creeps or trails himself forward on
the ice, and is then said to conceal with his fore paws the only part of
his body that contrasts with the white colour of the snow--his large black
nose. If the man keeps quite still, the bear comes in this way so near that
it can be shot at the distance of two gun-lengths, or killed with a lance,
which the hunters consider safer."
When a vessel lies at anchor, a polar bear sometimes swims out to it, to
inspect the visiting ship; it has also a special fancy for breaking open
and searching stores of provisions, boats abandoned and covered over, and
cabins of wrecked ships. One bear which had looted a provision depôt was
found to have swallowed a quantity of sticking-plaster. The ice-bear has
been met swimming at a distance of eighty miles from land, and with no ice
in sight. This shows how thoroughly aquatic its habits and powers are.
Polar bears do not hug their victims, like the brown bear, but bite, and
use their immense feet and sharp claws. It has been said that when one
catches a seal on the ice it will play with it as a cat does with a mouse.
The size of these bears varies very much. Seven or eight feet from the tip
of the nose to the tail is the usual length; yet they have been known to
exceed even 13 feet in length. This would correspond to an immense
difference in bulk and weight. An ice-bear was once found feeding on the
body of a white whale, 15 feet in length, and weighing three or four tons.
The whale could not have got on to the ice by itself, and it is difficult
to imagine that any other creature except the bear could have dragged it
there from the sea, where it was found floating. When hunting seals, polar
bears will chase them in the water as an otter does a fish, but with what
result is not known. Besides stalking them in the manner described above,
they will mark the place at which seals are basking on the rim of an
ice-floe, and then dive, and come up just at the spot where the seal would
naturally drop into the water. Those shot for the sake of their skins are
nearly all killed when swimming in the sea. The hunters mark a bear on an
ice-floe, and approach it. The bear always tries to escape by swimming, and
is pursued and shot through the head from the boat. When the females have a
cub or cubs with them, they will often attack persons or boats which molest
them; otherwise they do not willingly interfere with man, except, as has
been said above, when they mistake men for seals or other natural prey.
[Illustration: _Photo by G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd._] [_Aberdeen._
THE ICE-BEAR'S COUCH.
A favourite attitude of the polar bear is to lie stretched on its stomach,
with the hind and fore legs extended flat. The head often lies between the
fore paws. Notice the hair on the feet, which keeps the animal from
slipping when on the ice.]
The instances recorded of the affection shown by these animals for their
young are somewhat pathetic. When the _Carcase_ frigate, which was engaged
on a voyage of Arctic discovery, was locked in the ice, a she-bear and two
cubs made their way to the ship, attracted by the scent of the blubber of a
walrus which the crew had killed a few days before. They ran to the fire,
and pulled off some of the walrus-flesh which remained unconsumed. The crew
then threw them large lumps of the flesh which were lying on the ice, which
the old bear fetched away singly, and laid before her cubs as she brought
it, dividing it, and giving each a share, and reserving but a small portion
for herself. As she was fetching away the last piece, the sailors shot both
the cubs dead, and wounded the dam. Although she could only just crawl to
the place where the cubs lay, she carried the lump of flesh which she had
last fetched away, and laid it before them; and when she saw that they
refused to eat, laid her paws on them, and tried to raise them up, moaning
pitifully. When she found she could not stir them, she went to some
distance, and looked back, and then returned, pawing them all over and
moaning. Finding at last that they were lifeless, she raised her head
towards the ship and uttered a growl, when the sailors killed her with a
volley of musket-balls.
----