4. As soon as the females are impregnated, the males go and live apart from them, and, urged by their sexual desires, they each go apart and make a hole, in which they emit a strong smell like he goats, and their faces become black, by being sprinkled like those of goats. This continues till after rain, when they turn again to their pasture. The animal acts in this way on account of its violent sexual desires and its fatness. In summer time this is so great that they cannot run, but are taken by those who pursue them, even on foot, in the second or third race. 5. They frequent the water both on account of the heat and the difficulty of breathing. At the period of sexual intercourse, their flesh is inferior both in taste and smell, like that of he-goats. In winter they are thin and weak, and in the spring are most active for the chase. When chased, they sometimes rest awhile, and remain standing till their pursuers come up with them, when they start afresh. They seem to do this from a pain in their intestines; for their viscera are so thin and weak that if they are only struck gently they are ruptured, though the hide remains sound. CHAPTER XXVII. 1. Bears perform the act of sexual intercourse in the manner already described, not mounting upon each other, but lying down upon the ground. The female is pregnant thirty days, when she produces one or two, or at the outside five cubs. The fœtus is smaller, in proportion to the size of the parent, than that of any other animal; for it is less than a weasel, and greater than a mouse. It is without hair and blind, and its legs and almost all its parts are without joints. Its season of sexual intercourse is in March. The cubs are born at the time of concealment. At this season both the female and the male are very fat. When they have brought up their young, they show themselves in the third month of the spring. The porcupine also conceals itself, and is pregnant for the same number of days, and in other respects resembles the bear. It is very difficult to capture the she bear when pregnant. CHAPTER XXVIII.