This happens only in the northern countries, where there are snows and severe winters.

In these he disappears for several months, hiding himself in his dark lair, and living, as the hunters assert, by "sucking his paws." This assertion, however, I will not attempt to corroborate.

All I can say is, that he retires to his lurking-place as "fat as butter," and comes out again in early spring as "thin as a rail." There is another curious fact about bears, that, to some extent, explains why they are not easily exterminated.

It is this: the old she-animals are never killed during the period of gestation--for they are never met with at that time.

It has been said there is no hunter to be found in all America who remembers having killed a she-bear with young, either of the black or grizzly species.