is masticating, and in the other a basket full of urchins to finish his repast; two or three of these have gotten out of the basket, and are scampering off around the pedestal. There is a very beautiful fountain in front of the Federal Palace, adorned with a statue of Berna. But it is the effigy of the bear that perpetually recurs to the eye in various forms and armor; it is the ensign of Bern, its heraldic animal, and cherished with religious care as the palladium of the state. On a fountain in the street of Justice, the Canton is represented in a militant attitude, by the figure of a bear in armor, with sword, belt, and banner; another fountain has a bear attending a cross-bowman as his squire; and the equestrian statue of Rudolph von Erlach is supported at the corners by four life-sized bronze bears as helmet-bearers. From the day of the legend connecting Bruin with the city’s foundation the bears have played a prominent part in local heraldry, that sage and grave beast being cunningly reproduced in print, coin, stone, wood, and confectionery of great artistic and amusing caricatures. The effigy appears upon the cantonal coat-of-arms, and is inseparably connected with the conquests of the warlike burghers. As a memorial of the seven hundredth anniversary, in 1891, of the foundation of the city, the municipal council intend opening a competition for designs of the statue of a bear more modern than that which has already existed for seven centuries. Every visitor to Bern is certain to see the _Bärengraben_, the bears’ den, containing the live animals. It is told that a whimsical old lady left a handsome estate to the town to maintain a family of bears. In 1798 they became associated with the spoliation of Bern, as they had been with its rise and prosperity. They were transported to Paris by Napoleon’s troops, the huge cage containing the father of the family having upon it an inscription not yet forgotten by the Bernese, “_Avoyer de Berne_.” For some time these bears, like the eagles of Geneva, held their court in the _Jardin des Plantes_, where the Gallic cock flapped his new-fledged wings and crowed over all the beasts in Europe--whether rampant or couchant--upon the field of honor. Only one lived to return to his home at the general restoration of the spoils; but this one was the aristocrat _Martin_, whose descent was traced directly from the pair given to the town by Réné of Lorraine, the ally of Bern in the war against Charles the Bold. Others were subsequently presented by friends of the town in Russia, and the family circle now numbers half a dozen. During the summer they enjoy a great feast from the constant stream of tourists, who persuade them to perform many antics by throwing them bread, fruits, and vegetables, of which they are fond; they literally lay themselves out for your amusement, catching these things lazily as they roll about on their backs. In the centre of the dens a pine stem is erected, and