little disposed, if unmolested, to attack a man.
Of the great strength and ferocity of the first
two of these, however, many accounts have been
narrated.
The Bears are almost confined to the northern hemisphere, but some are peculiar to India, and one is found beneath the equator, in the great island of Borneo.
The Brown Bear (U. arctos, Linn.) is familiar to nearly every one in this country, of which in former ages it was a native. ‘Throughout the northern parts of continental Europe, and in the mountain forests of the central and southern districts, it is still very numerous. It extends also into the dreary regions of Asiatic Russia. Unsocial and solitary, haunting the most gloomy and secluded forests, he associates with his mate only for a very brief period, and on the approach of winter, retires into some cave, or hollow beneath the roots of a prostrate tree. The snows soon envelop him on all sides, and form a protection against the inclemency of the external cold, while his breath keeps open an orifice sufficiently large to supply him with freshair. He is always very fat at the time of his retirement; and itis by the slow absorption of this accumulated nutriment, that he is supposed to supply the languid requirements of nature, through his long lethargy. On the other hand, the American Bears are stated, on the authority of Dr. Richardson, to leave their winter retreats as fat as they retired, but to become quite lean in the first few days of resumed activity.
The female brings forth her cubs, usually two in number, in her winter concealment: they are born blind, and do not open their eyes for thirty
