black bears with big yellow or white collars and very smooth coats.
They come from Malay, and are not at all like one's ordinary idea of a
bear. There are also funny little bears who go head-over-heels to make
people look at them. There is an open cage here, too, with a pond in
it. Sometimes the grizzlies live here; very fearful they look too, with
their terrible claws, as long as fingers. Or there may be a family of
young ones romping together.

Bears are to be found in nearly all parts of the world, and they are
very different from one another. Bears in their natural state would not
attack men, but when men follow them up and try to hunt them they become
very savage. There is a bear-pit at the end of the double row of cages,
and if we go up on the top and look down we shall see the two brown
bears who climb up a pole to get buns.

Now we will go back again to visit the Polar bears who live in a
spacious place at the end of the Mappin terraces, and deserve a little
more attention than the rest because they are so very different in their
appearance and habits.

One day I caught Mr. Polar Bear in a good humour, so that he was
actually willing to talk to me. 'It's not so bad here sometimes,' said
he. 'The keeper does give us plenty of fish. It isn't so good as seal,
though. That's what I like--seal rich and juicy, and almost alive. But
it doesn't matter much, after all, for I have no appetite, it's so hot,
always hot; my great thick coat makes me feel abominably warm. The only
comfortable place is the bath, and that's lukewarm. Cold, do you call
it? Oh, you don't know what cold is--real keen, cutting cold, which
makes one feel young again and ready for anything. Oh for those long
blue Arctic nights, when the sun never rises for days together, and the
stars flash like diamonds, and the aurora shoots over the gleaming
sky!--nights when everything is still, held in the grip of a frost
greater than you can imagine; where for miles and miles there is only
the glittering ice reflecting the flashing sky and the deep blue shadows
under hillocks of frozen snow. Then it's worth while to live. Shall I
ever see it again? My wife used to say before she died that she didn't
know what was the matter with me, I had grown so cross; I only growled
at her. But I knew what was the matter with me. I can't breathe here,
it's all so stuffy and dull--no excitement. You've never caught a seal
in your life? Then you don't know what excitement i