e has seen
them in the mountains of Abyssinia, and heard of them also in Arabia
Felix! Several French and English travellers (Dapper, Shaw, Poncet, and
Poiret), bear testimony to the existence of bears in different parts of
Africa--in Nubia, Babur, and Congo. In the Atlas mountains, between
Algiers and Morocco, according to Poiret, bears are common enough; and
this writer even gives some details as to their habits. He says that
they are exceedingly fierce and carnivorous, and that the Arabs believe
they can lift stones in their paws and fling them at those who may be in
pursuit of them! He relates that an Arab hunter brought him the skin of
one of those bears; and also showed him a wound in his leg, which he had
received by the animal having launched a stone at him while he was
pursuing it! Monsieur Poiret, however, does not vouch for the truth of
the stone-throwing, though he stoutly maintains the existence of African
bears."

"What does papa think about it?" inquired Ivan.

"That there are bears in Africa--perhaps in all the mountainous parts of
Africa--but certainly in the Atlas and Tetuan ranges. Indeed, an
English traveller of veracity has put the question beyond a doubt, by
giving some points in the description of these African bears.
Naturalists thought that if such an animal existed in Africa, it would
be the same species as the Syrian; but although the bears reported in
the Arabian and Abyssinian mountains are likely enough to be of that
species, those of the Atlas are evidently not only distinct from the
Syrian bear, but from all other known kinds. One that was killed near
Tetuan, about twenty-five miles from the Atlas mountains, was a female,
and less in size than the American black bear. It was black also, or
rather brownish black, and without any white marking about the muzzle,
but under the belly its fur was of a reddish orange. The hair was
shaggy and four or five inches long, while the snout, toes, and claws
were all shorter than in the American black bear, and the body was of
thicker and stouter make. The Englishman had learnt something of its
habits too. The Arabs said it was rarely met with near Tetuan; that it
fed on roots, acorns, and fruits, but was only an indifferent climber.
Indeed it would be very improbable," continued Alexis, "that the great
ranges of the Atlas and Abyssinian mountains should be without these
mammalia, since they exist in nearly all the other mountains of the
glo