ay to
Kamschatka, the bear. Into his presence they would find no difficulty
in introducing themselves: for perhaps in no country in the world does
master Bruin's family muster so strongly as in this very peninsula.

CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.

FISHING-BEARS.

Previous to starting forth in search of the Kamschatkan bear, our
hunters collected all the particulars they could in regard to the haunts
and habits of this animal.

They learnt that there were at least two varieties known to the Kurilski
and Koriac hunters. One of them was the more common kind--a brown bear,
closely resembling the _ursus arctos_; and the other also a brown bear;
but with a whitish list running up from the under part of his throat,
and meeting like a collar over the tops of his shoulders. This latter
kind was undoubtedly the species known as the "Siberian bear" (_ursus
collaris_); and which has an extensive range throughout most of the
countries of Northern Asia. The native hunters alleged that the two
kinds were of nearly similar habits. Both went to sleep during the
winter--concealing themselves cunningly in caves and crevices among
rocks, or among fallen timber, where such could be found in sufficient
quantity to afford them shelter.

One remarkable habit of these bears indicates a very marked difference
between them and the _ursus arctos_, with which they have been usually
classed; and that is, that they are _fishing-bears_--subsisting almost
exclusively on fish, which they catch for themselves. During their
winter sleep, of course they eat nothing; but in spring, as soon as they
emerge from their retreats, they at once betake themselves to the
numerous streams and lakes, with which the country abounds; and roaming
along the banks of these, or wading in the water itself, they spend the
whole of their time in angling about after trout and salmon. There,
fish, thanks to their immense numbers, and the shallowness of the water
in most of the lakes and streams, the bears are enabled to catch almost
at discretion. They wade into the water, and getting among the shoals
of the fish as they are passing to and fro, strike them dead with their
paws. The fish are killed as instantaneously as if impaled upon a
fishing spear; and in such numbers do the bears capture them, at certain
seasons, that the captors grow dainty, and only eat a portion of each
fish! They show a strange preference for that part, which is usually
considered refuse, the hea