nd his hair is just like a
thick coat, so that he cannot live where it is very hot all the time.

Of course, once upon a time the bear lived only in places where it was
very cold, and so he grew thick hair to keep out the cold; but now
that he _has_ a thick coat of hair, he cannot go down to hot countries
to live. He does not mind living in a cold country; and the colder the
country is, the thicker is his coat of hair.

What does the bear eat? Most kinds of bears eat berries, fruits, soft
roots of trees, and fish when they can catch it. One or two kinds of
bears eat other things also, which I shall tell you about very soon.

The bears that live in cold countries, where there is heavy snow in
winter, cannot get anything at all to eat in winter. Why? Because
there are no fruits and berries in winter, and the roots of trees are
frozen hard and covered up by the snow.

Then if those bears cannot get anything to eat in winter, what do they
do? They _sleep_!

You know that when you are asleep you do not feel hungry; but as soon
as you wake up you feel hungry again. It is just the same with the
bear; he does not feel very hungry while he sleeps. And he _sleeps
right through the winter months_!

Still, while he is asleep all that time, does he not feel a little bit
hungry? He does. So he uses up the store of food inside his body! I
have told you that the camel carries a store of food in his hump. The
bear has no hump, of course, but he has a _thick chunk of fat all
around his body_ just under his skin; and that chunk of fat is his
_store of food_.

So, when the bear sleeps snugly in his den in the winter months, the
chunk of fat is slowly used up inside his body, and keeps him from
being very hungry.

Of course, he eats such a lot just before the winter, that the chunk
of fat is very thick when he goes to bed. But the chunk is all used up
when he wakes up at the end of the winter, and then he is very hungry
again!

But there is a kind of bear that lives in a place where there is snow
and ice almost all the time. What can _he_ do?

He cannot sleep always! So he has to get something to eat now and
then, and I shall tell you how he does that.

_The Polar Bear_

This kind of bear is called the _polar bear_. (See the picture on page
155.) He lives in a place far up North, where it is always very cold.
The land is nearly covered with snow, and the water at the top of the
sea is frozen. There are no berries or fruits