of
subsistence;" but he will also eat fruits, and sweet succulent
vegetables; and, it is scarce necessary to add, that he is "wild after"
honey, and a regular robber of bee-hives.

Notwithstanding the comic _role_, which he is often taught to play in
the hands of the jugglers, he not unfrequently enacts a little bit of
tragedy. This occurs when in his wild or natural state. He is not
disposed wantonly to make an attack upon human beings; and if left
unmolested, he will go his way; but, when wounded or otherwise provoked,
he can show fight to about the same degree as the black bear of America.
The natives of India hold him in dread: but chiefly on account of the
damage he occasions to their crops--especially to the plantations of
sugar-cane.

We have stated that the sloth bear is not exclusively confined to the
Himalayas. On the contrary, these mountains are only the northern limit
of his range--which extends over the whole peninsula of Hindostan, and
even beyond it, to the island of Ceylon. He is common in the Deccan,
the country of the Mahrattas, Sylhet, and most probably throughout
Transgangetic India. In the mountains that bound the province of Bengal
to the east and west, and also along the foot-hills of the Himalayas of
Nepaul on its north, the sloth bear is the most common representative of
the Bruin family; but up into the higher ranges he does not extend his
wanderings. His _habitat_ proves that he affects a hot, rather than a
cold climate--notwithstanding the great length of the fur upon his coat.

One peculiarity remains to be mentioned. Instead of hiding himself away
in solitudes, remote from human habitations, he rather seeks the society
of man: not that he is fond of the latter; but simply that he may avail
himself of the results of human industry. For this purpose he always
seeks his haunt near to some settlement--whence he may conveniently make
his depredations upon the crops. He is not, strictly speaking, a forest
animal. The low jungle is his abode; and his lair is a hole under some
overhanging bank--either a natural cavity, or one which has been
hollowed out by some burrowing animal.

Knowing that the sloth bear might be met with in any part of the
country, to the northward of Calcutta, our hunters determined to keep a
lookout for him while on their way to the Himalayas--which mountains
they intended ascending, either through the little state of Sikkim, or
the kingdom of Nepaul.

Their