Page:How and Why Library 279.jpg

 long gray hair about his head. The big white polar bear, who weighs as much as an ox, doesn't pay any attention to anybody. He just prowls and prowls in an uneasy, lonesome way about his pit, until you feel sorry for him. His thick fur and fat body make him uncomfortable, very likely. When, on a hot day, a keeper gives him a ton of ice to lie on, he seems happier. If he turns his big paws up you can see that he is rough-shod, with hairy bristles all over the soles of his feet, for travelling on ice and snow.

Suddenly, for no cause that you can see, the bears in all the pits will shuffle over to the bars, rear upon their hind legs and "woof!" They smell the keeper coming with bread. Bears do not see very well out of their small eyes, and are rather dull of hearing, but they have wonderful noses for news, especially news of food and of enemies. If the wind is right, Mr. Wild Bear can smell a hunter and his gunpowder a mile away, and he gets out of a dangerous neighborhood as fast as he can travel.

He can travel fast, too. For all he is so clumsy he can run as well as he can climb. But he is not built for jumping, or for turning easily and quickly. Old hunters know this, so when a bear chases them they sometimes escape by turning sharp corners, or by zigzagging. This puzzles a bear and wears him out. Hunters never climb big trees, for the bear can go right up after them. When they climb small trees bears have been known to put their big arms around the trunk and try to shake them down. Or they sit at the foot of the tree and wait. As little Alex says: "That bear 'ist won't go 'way, 'ist growls 'round there, an' the Little Boy he haf to stay up in the tree all night." Bears are clever about getting out of tight places, too. Here is a story about a clever bear that is told by a naturalist.

A dozen men were in the Rocky Mountains of Canada laying out a route for a new railroad when they saw a big cinnamon bear in a tree. He had gone up for honey or a squirrel's store of nuts, or just for a nap, perhaps. The men had no guns, but they had axes and crowbars, so they thought they could manage Mr. Bear. They chopped the tree nearly down, the bear lying still and watching them. When the tree began to fall he put his forepaws over his head, rolled up into a big ball and dropped. He upset some of the men and surprised the others so that he had time to scramble to his feet and run away. I shouldn't wonder if that bear was still laughing at those men.