endereh,
Thebes. Sometimes amid the warm light your thoughts will go away
thousands of miles, where the frosts shiver upon the windows, the snows
lie heavy upon the hills, and warm hearts are praying for the traveller;
but the days will creep swiftly by on the Nile, and too soon will come
the hour when, the journey ended, we must leave the river, the palms,
the Pyramids, and bid a long adieu to our pleasant floating home.

THE WHITE BEAR OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS.

The polar bear, the _nannook_ of the Esquimaux, has its home in the
desolate and icy wastes which border the northern seas. It has many
characteristics in common with its brothers which live in warmer
countries. It is very sagacious and cunning, sometimes playful, but is
not a very savage beast, and will rarely attack a hunter unless in
self-defense, or when driven by hunger to fall upon everything which
comes in its way. Dr. Kane, the great arctic traveller, says he has
himself shot as many as a dozen bears near at hand, and never but once
received a charge in return. The hair of the polar bear is very coarse
and thick, and white like the snow-banks among which it lives. Its
favorite food is the seal, which abounds in the northern regions; it
will also eat walrus, but as that animal is very strong, and possesses a
pair of formidable tusks, bears are sometimes beaten in their attempts
to capture it. Wonderful stories are told of bears mounting to the top
of high cliffs and pushing heavy stones down upon the head of some
unwary walrus sleeping or sunning himself at the foot, and then rushing
down to dispatch the stunned and bruised animal, but arctic travellers
disagree upon this point. A very hungry bear will sometimes attack a
walrus in the water, for the polar bear is a powerful swimmer; but in
his peculiar element--and he is never far from it--the walrus is the
best fighter, and his tough hide serves as an almost impenetrable armor.

As seal hunter the polar bear displays much cunning. It will watch
patiently for hours in the vicinity of a seal hole in the ice, and the
instant its prey comes out to bask in the sun, the sly bear crouches,
with its fore-paws doubled up under its body, while with its hind-legs
it slowly and noiselessly pushes and hitches itself along toward the
desired game. Does the seal raise its head to look around, the bear
remains motionless, its color making it hardly distinguishable, until
the unsuspecting seal takes another nap.