Among the Carnivora, or flesh-eating animals, Bears take the first
place; for their characters and habits link them in some degree with the
preceding order, the Insectivora. Both principally live on fruit,
grains, and insects, and only eat flesh from necessity, or some
peculiarity of life, such as confinement, or education.
The Carnivora are divided by naturalists into three tribes, the
characters for which are taken from their feet and manner of walking.
Bears rank among the Plantigrada, or those which put the whole of their
feet firmly upon the ground when they walk. They are occasionally
cunning and ferocious, but often evince good humour, and a great love of
fun. In their wild state they are solitary the greater part of their
lives; they climb trees with great facility, live in caverns, holes, and
hollow trees; and in cold countries, retire to some secluded spot during
the winter, where they remain concealed, and bring forth their young.
Some say they are torpid; but this cannot be, for the female bears come
from their retreats with cubs which have lived upon them, and it is not
likely, that they can have reared them and remained without food; they
are, however, often very lean and wasted, and the absorption of their
generally large portion of fat, contributes to their nourishment. The
story that they live by sucking their paws is, as may be supposed, a
fable; when well-fed they always lick their paws, very often
accompanying the action with a peculiar sort of mumbling noise. There
are a few which will never eat flesh, and all are able to do without it.
They are, generally speaking, large, clumsy and awkward, possessing
large claws for digging; and often walk on their hind-feet, a facility
afforded them by the peculiar formation of their thigh-bone. They do not
often attack in the first instance, unless impelled by hunger or danger;
they are, however, formidable opponents when excited. In former times
there were few parts of the globe in which they were not to be found;
but like other wild animals, they have disappeared before the advance of
man. Still they are found in certain spots from the northern regions of
the world, to the burning climes of Africa, Asia, and America. The
latest date of their appearance in Great Britain, was in Scotland,
during the year 1057.
Bears are always covered with thick fur; which, notwithstanding its
coarseness, is much prized for various purposes. They afford much sport
to those inclined for such exercises; but the cruel practice of
bear-baiting is discontinued. In an old edition of Hudibras, there is a
curious note of a mode of running at the devoted bears with
wheelbarrows, on which they vented their fury, and the baiters thus had
them at their mercy. At present the hunts are regularly organised
fights, or battles, besides which there are many ways of catching them
in traps, pitfalls, etc.
The large polar bear (Ursus Maritimus), with its white fur, its long,
flattened head, and black claws, may be seen in great perfection at the
Zoological Gardens. In its own country, during the winter, it lives
chiefly on seal's flesh, but in the summer eats berries, sea-weed, and
marsh plants. It is one of the most formidable of the race; and may be
seen climbing mountains of ice, and swimming from floe to floe with the
greatest rapidity. Captain Lyon tells us, that when a seal lies just
ashore, the bear gets quietly into the water and swims away from him to
leeward; he then takes short dives, and manages so that the last dive
shall bring him back close to the seal, which tries to escape by rolling
into the water, when he falls into the bear's paws; and if he should lie
still, the bear springs upon and devours him; its favourite food,
however, is the floating carcases of whales. The gait of all bears is a
sort of shuffle; but this one goes at such a rate, that its pace is
equal to a horse's gallop. It is remarkably sagacious, and often defeats
the stratagems practised for its capture. A female with two cubs was
pursued across a field of ice by a party of sailors; at first she urged
the young ones to increase their speed, by running in front of them,
turning round, and evincing, by gesture and voice, great anxiety for
their progress; but finding that their pursuers gained upon them, she
alternately carried, pushed, or pitched them forwards, until she
effected their escape. The cubs seemed to arrange themselves for the
throw, and when thus sent forwards some yards in advance, ran on till
she again came up to them, when they alternately placed themselves
before her.
A she-bear and two large cubs, being attracted by the scent of some
blubber, proceeding from a seahorse, which had been set on fire, and was
burning on the ice, ran eagerly towards it, dragged some pieces out of
the flames, and eat them with great voracity. The sailors threw them
some lumps still left in their possession, which the old bear took away
and laid before her cubs, reserving only a small piece for herself. As
they were eating the last piece, the men shot the cubs, and wounded the
mother. Her distress was most painful to behold, and, though wounded,
she crawled to the spot where they lay, tore the piece of flesh into
pieces, and put some before each. Finding they did not eat, she tried
to raise them, making piteous moans all the time. She then went to some
distance, looked back and moaned, and this failing to entice them, she
returned and licked their wounds. She did this a second time, and still
finding that the cubs did not follow, she went round and pawed them with
great tenderness. Being at last convinced that they were lifeless, she
raised her head towards the ship, and, by a growl, seemed to reproach
their destroyers. They returned this with a volley of musket balls;[1]
she fell between her cubs, and died licking their wounds.
[Illustration: THE BEAR AND HER CUBS.--Page 54.]
The black bear of Canada is a formidable creature, and Dr. Richardson
contradicts the assertion that it is not swift of foot; he says that it
soon outstrips the swiftest runner, and adds, that it climbs as well, if
not better than a cat. It feeds on berries, eggs, and roots; but
although it does not seek flesh, it does not refuse it when offered. A
young bear of this kind roughly handled a Canadian settler, who, being a
very large powerful man, returned hug for hug, till the surprised bear
let go its hold. It had ventured into some young plantations, where it
was committing much mischief, and the settler had endeavoured to
frighten it away. A friend of mine was in the house when the gentleman
returned home, his clothes torn in the struggle, and very much exhausted
by the encounter; he dropped into a chair, and nearly fainted, but a
little brandy revived him, though he was ill some days from the
pressure.
A young English officer, who was stationed at a lone fortress in the
same country, amused himself by taming a bear of the above species. He
taught him to fetch and carry, to follow him like a dog, and to wait
patiently at meal time for his share. He took the bear with him when he
returned to England, and he became a great favourite with the passengers
and the ship's company. Bruin, however, especially attached himself to a
little girl, about four years old, the daughter of one of the ladies on
board, who romped with him as she would with a dog. In one of these
games of play, he seized her with one fore paw, and with the other
clambered and clung to the rigging, till he lodged her and himself in
the main top, where, regardless of her cries and the agony of her
mother, he tried to continue his romp. It would not do to pursue the
pair, for fear the bear should drop the child; and his master, knowing
how fond he was of sugar, had some mattresses placed round the mast, in
case the child should fall, and then strewed a quantity of the sugar on
the deck; he called Bruin, and pointed to it, who, after a moment's
hesitation, came down as he went up, bringing the child in safety. He
was, of course, deprived of his liberty during the rest of his voyage.
This same black bear of Canada, after it has hugged its antagonists to
death, tears them open with its hind feet. It will ward off blows like
an accomplished boxer; for, as it would be of no use to strike him on
his thickly-covered body, the attacks are usually made about the head. A
man who wantonly threw an axe at a male bear as he passed, wounded him,
whereupon the beast rushed at him, the man fell backwards over a fallen
tree, and, in so doing, tore off a sharp-pointed knob of wood, which he
thrust down the bear's throat, and so killed him; not, however, before
he had received his own death wound from the hind foot. He walked home
holding in his intestines, and died a day or two after.[2]
An old hunter, named Ruhe, having set his traps to catch beavers,
returned to the stream to ascertain his success; he missed one of them,
and, on looking for it, saw signs of a bear having passed that way. As
he went on, he heard the noise of a heavy body breaking through the
bushes in the thicket. He hid himself behind a rock, and saw a huge
bear, limping on three legs to a flat piece of rock, upon which it
seated itself, and on raising one of its fore paws Ruhe discovered that
it was encircled by the lost trap. The bear lifted the iron glove
towards his face, examined it, turned his paw round and round, bent his
head from side to side, looked at the trap askance with the most
puzzled air, felt the encumbrance, tapped it on the rock, and evidently
knew not what to do. Then he began to feel pain and licked it; but Ruhe
soon put an end to all his conjectures, by shooting him dead.[3]
Of all bears, the grizzly is said to be the most formidable, both for
size and ferocity, and Mr. Ruxton tells the following anecdote, in which
one of them makes a conspicuous figure:--"A trapper, named Glass, and a
companion, were setting their beaver traps in a stream to the north of
the river Platte, when they saw a large, grizzly bear turning up the
turf near by, and searching for roots and pig-nuts. The two men crept to
the thicket, and fired at him; they wounded, but did not kill him; the
beast groaned, jumped all four legs from the ground, and, snorting with
pain and fury, charged towards the place from whence came the smoke of
the rifles. The men rushed through the thicket, where the underwood
almost impeded their progress; but the beast's weight and strength
carried him along so fast, that he soon came up with them. A steep bluff
was situated a hundred yards off, with a level plain of grass between it
and the thicket; the hunters flew across the latter with the utmost
speed, the bear after them. When he reached about halfway, Glass
stumbled over a stone and fell. He rose, and the bear stood before him
on his hind legs. Glass called to his companion to fire, and he himself
sent the contents of his pistol into the bear's body. The furious
animal, with the blood streaming from his nose and mouth, knocked the
pistol away with one paw, while he stuck the claws of the other into the
flesh of his antagonist, and rolled with him on the ground. Glass
managed to reach his knife, and plunged it several times into the bear,
while the latter, with tooth and claw, tore his flesh. At last, blinded
with blood and exhaustion, the knife fell from the trapper's hand, and
he became insensible. His companion, who thought his turn would come
next, did not even think of reloading his rifle, and fled to the camp,
where others of his party were resting, to tell the miserable fate of
their companion. Assistance was sent, and Glass still breathed, but the
bear lay across him quite dead, from three bullets and twenty knife
wounds; the man's flesh was torn away in slips, and lumps of it lay upon
the ground; his scalp hung bleeding over his face, which was also torn.
The men took away the trapper's hunting-shirt, moccasins, and arms,
dragged the bear off his body, and left him, declaring, when they
rejoined their party, that they had completed his burial."
Although the bear no longer figures in the story, I must be allowed to
relate the sequel, as a proof of what human nature can endure without
destruction. Months elapsed, and some of the party of the above
mentioned camp were on their way to a trading port with their skins,
when they saw a horseman approach them, with a face so scarred and
disfigured that they could not distinguish his features.
The stranger accosted that one of the party who had been Glass's
companion, exclaiming, in a hollow voice, "Hurrah, Bill, my boy, you
thought I was gone under (killed) that time, did you? but hand me over
my horse and gun, lad. I'm not dead yet." Astonishment and horror seized
on the party, many of whom believed he had been buried as well as dead.
However, there could be no mistake now, and when they had sufficiently
recovered from their surprise to listen to Glass's story, he told them
that he knew not how long he lay before he recovered his senses; but
when he did, and was able to take nourishment, he was obliged to subsist
on the flesh of the bear. When he had strength to crawl, he tore off as
much of this as he could carry in his weak state, and crept down to the
river; he had suffered tortures from cold, wounds, and hunger, but he
had reached the fort, which was between eighty and ninety miles distant,
living the greater part of the way on roots and berries, but there he
had been taken care of and recovered.
The brown bear much resembles the black in size, habits and shape, and
like it, lives in hollow places; he, however, sometimes digs pits for
himself, and even constructs huts, which he lines with moss. Both
attain an enormous size and weight. All bears are extremely fond of
honey and sugar, and are often taken when venturing too close to man to
procure these enticing substances. The settlers in Canada, when they
make maple sugar, catch them by leaving a boiler full, into which they
dip their paws, or their head, and they fall an easy prey when
encumbered with the thick, saccharine matter, and sometimes with the
boiler also. Bruin's attention is easily diverted, and many have escaped
by throwing a bundle or knapsack down when he is in pursuit of them, for
while he stoops to examine it, they gain time and distance. It is
natural to him to play all sorts of antics; and we are told by an Indian
traveller, that in one of his journeys, some bears kept in front of his
palanquin, tumbling and playing as if they designed to afford him
amusement. Climbing is a great delight to them, and one was seen to
ascend a scaffolding, for his own pleasure; he at first proceeded
cautiously, examining the strength of all the joists, and at last
reached the summit, which was one hundred and twenty feet high. He
looked much pleased when he had completed this operation, and the
workmen treated him with great civility. They were going to lower him in
a bucket, but to this he would not consent, and descended as he had
mounted, being so pleased with his prowess, that he repeated his visit.
A Norwegian had tamed a bear so completely, that he used to stand at the
back of his master's sledge, where he kept so good a balance, that it
was impossible to upset him: if the sledge went on one side, the bear
threw his weight in the opposite direction, and so kept up the
equilibrium. One day, however, his master, in sport, drove over the
worst ground he could find, hoping to throw the bear off. This, however,
only served to irritate him; and he vented his ill humour by giving his
master a tremendous blow across the shoulders.
A countryman, in Russia, when seeking honey, climbed a very high tree;
the trunk of which was hollow, and finding there was a large quantity of
comb in it, he descended, and stuck fast in the tenacious substance
there deposited. He was so far distant from home, that his voice could
not be heard, and he remained two days in this situation, relieving his
hunger with the honey. He began to despair of ever being extricated,
when a bear who, like himself, came for the sake of the honey, slid down
the hollow, hind part foremost. The man, in spite of his alarm, seized
hold of him, and the bear, also in a great fright, clambered out as fast
as he could, dragging the man up with him, and when clear of his
tail-bearer, made off as fast as possible.
The drollest and most accomplished of all bears, was the celebrated
Martin, of Paris, whose dancing, climbing, curtsying, tumbling,
begging, and many other antics, were the delight of every child in the
metropolis, and of many grown-up children also. It is true, that the
nursemaids endangered the lives of their charges, by holding them over
the side of the pit in which he was kept; but as none _did_ fall, they
continued to amuse themselves and their nurslings at the same risk. One
morning early, he very cleverly withdrew the bolts of his pit door, and
sallied forth on his hind-legs to take a walk. The keepers of the garden
had not risen; but the dogs were on the alert, and surrounded Martin,
jumping and barking, half in play, and half in earnest. This roused the
men, who, rushing out to see what was the matter, beheld the bear in the
midst of the canine troop, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and an
expression of fun and enjoyment in his countenance, which was
indescribable. Never was the malignant scowl, so often noticed in bears,
from pulling the nictating membrane, or third eyelid half over the
eye, seen in poor Martin's face; yet he became unpopular from the
cupidity of one of the sentinels. This man fancied he saw a five-franc
piece lying in the bear's pit, and determined to go during the night,
when he would be on duty, and secure it. He accordingly provided himself
with a ladder, and when the guard was changed, was found lying lifeless
at the bottom, the coveted piece in his hand, which proved to be nothing
but a large button. No marks of violence were to be seen upon his body,
but the contusions on his head seemed to tell that he had fallen from
the ladder when near the top, and so met his death. Whether he had been
frightened, or seized with giddiness, or whether Martin had shaken the
ladder, no one could say; the animal was sitting quietly by his side
when his fate was first made known. The story fled like wildfire from
one end of Paris to the other, and in a short time, the populace were
fully convinced that Martin had killed him; and this, combined with
other exaggerations, induced them to flock in multitudes to see the
murderous bear. Afterwards, two balls of arsenic, wrapped up in some
sweet substance, were found in the pit, fortunately before Martin had
touched them; and the authorities of the establishment thought it
prudent to remove him to a den in the menagerie. The front of these dens
was closed at night with a sliding shutter, pulled down by inserting a
hook at the end of a long pole into a ring, which ring, when the shutter
was down, served to admit a bolt. This did not at all please Martin, and
the keeper never could accomplish the fastening, till some one else went
to the other side to take off the bear's attention; for the moment the
shutter was down, Martin inserted his claws and pushed it up again, and
this practice was continued as long as he existed.
The Malayan Sun bear (Ursus Malayensis) has a long tongue, short smooth
fur, very extensible, flexible lips, and large claws. Sir Stamford
Raffles had one which was brought up in the nursery with his children,
and when he joined the party at table, would only eat the choicest
fruit, and drink champagne, and even be out of humour when there was
none of the latter. He was very affectionate, and never required to be
chained or chastised. This bear, a cat, a dog, and a lory from New
Holland, used to eat amicably out of the same dish. His favorite
playfellow, however, was the dog, although he was teased and worried by
it incessantly. He grew to be very powerful, and pulled plants and trees
up by the roots, the latter of which were too large for him to embrace.
The Bornean bear (Ursus Euryspilus) is one of the most amusing and
playful of all bears; begs in the most earnest manner, and when it has
more to eat than it can hold in its paws and mouth, places the surplus
on its hinder feet, as if to keep it from being soiled; and when vexed
or irritated, will never be reconciled as long as the offender is in its
sight. It does much injury to cocoa-nut trees, by biting off the top
shoots, or tearing down the fruit.
[1] Captain Phipps' Voyage to the North Pole.
[2] L'Acadie.
[3] Ruxton.