ground, were determined to make a day of it;
and after breakfast continued their hunt--which resulted in their
finding and killing, not only another _bruang_, but a _rimau dahan_, or
"clouded tiger" (_felis macrocelus_): the most beautiful of all feline
animals, and whose skin they intended should be one of the trophies to
be mounted in the museum of the palace Grodonoff.

This hunt ended their adventures in the Oriental Archipelago; and from
Sambos they proceeded direct through the straits of Malacca, and up the
Bay of Bengal to the great city of Calcutta.

CHAPTER FIFTY NINE.

THE SLOTH BEAR.

_En route_ for the grand mountains of Imaus--the stupendous chain of the
Himalayas!

There our hunters expected to find no less than three species of bears--
each distinct from the others in outline of form, in aspect, in certain
habits, and even in _habitat_; for although all three exist in the
Himalayas, each has its own zone of altitude, in which it ranges almost
exclusively. These three bears are, the "sloth bear" (_ursus labatus_),
the "Thibet bear" (_ursus thibetanus_), and the "snow bear" (_ursus
isabellinus_).

The first-mentioned is the one which has received most notice--both from
naturalists and travellers. It is that species which by certain
wiseacres of the closet school was for a long time regarded as a sloth
(_bradypus_). In redeeming it from this character, other systematists
were not content to leave it where it really belongs--in the genus
_ursus_--but must, forsooth, create a new one for its special
accommodation; and it now figures in zoological catalogues as a
_prochilus_--the _prochilus labiatus_! We shall reject this absurd
title, and call it by its real one--_ursus labiatus_, which, literally
translated, would mean the "lipped bear"--not a very specific
appellation neither. The name has been given in reference to a peculiar
characteristic of the animal--that is, its power of protruding or
extending the lips to seize its food--in which peculiarity it resembles
the tapir, giraffe, and some other animals. Its trivial name of "sloth
bear" is more expressive: for certainly its peculiar aspect--caused by
the long shaggy masses of hair which cover its neck and body--gives it a
very striking resemblance to the sloth. Its long crescent-shaped claws
strengthen this resemblance. A less distinctive name is that by which
it is known to the French naturalists, "ours de jongleurs," or
"juggler's bea