The Land of the Long NightDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
General
The Land of the Long Night
Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
Lapland -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Jakob continued: "The bear chooses a place in which he can lie
comfortably, such as under boulders or fallen trees, where he can be
protected from the snow. He becomes suspicious after he has chosen the
place for his Winter's Night, and for days he walks round and round to
see that there is no danger and to make sure that no enemy can see him.
He wants to feel perfectly safe before he goes into winter quarters. By
walking round wherever the wind blows, he is sure to scent danger, and
if he does he moves away and goes to seek some other place. The bear is
very wary; it is almost impossible in summer to pursue him without dogs,
for he is so quick of foot and always on the alert, that when a hunter
sees one he has to be more wary than the bear to approach within
shooting distance of him. When badly wounded he attacks his enemy
suddenly."
After Jakob had done speaking, I said to him, in my turn: "Let me tell
you a bear story. One autumn day when I had crossed the mountains by the
great Sulitelma glacier and was descending the eastern slope on my way
to the Gulf of Bothnia, my Lapp guide and I saw a big brown bear in the
distance, but as it was almost dark we decided not to go after him, for
the country was very stony. We camped that day in a forest of pines, in
order to be sheltered from the wind, for we were to sleep without a fire
so as not to make the bear suspicious. After taking our frugal meal of
hard bread and butter, my Lapp said to me, 'To-morrow we shall see the
bear; it is late in the season, and I am sure that he is looking for his
winter quarters in the neighborhood, and at the first indication of a
big snowstorm he will make ready for his long sleep, for the bears know
when a snowstorm is coming.'
"'How can they know?' I inquired.
"'I cannot tell you, for I do not know,' he replied, 'for I am not a
bear; but they do know. Do not the swallows and other migrating birds
know the approach of winter and then fly southward?'
"'They do,' I replied.
"That day we were very tired, for we had been tramping all day, down and
up hills and leaping over boulders which covered the country in many
places, and the wonder to me was that we did not break our necks.
"The place we had chosen for the night was by a big boulder almost as
large as a small house. There we could be sheltered against the cold
wind of the night that came through the trees. I picked out a stone for
a pillow, then stretched myself by the side of the boulder on thick
lichen that grew over the barren soil, and made a comfortable bed. My
guide did likewise. Then we bade each other good-night and soon fell
asleep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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