The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.Bennett, Edward Turner
History
The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.
Next to his great size and excessive ferocity, one of the most striking
peculiarities of this animal is his extreme tenacity of life. For the
instances of this we are indebted almost wholly to the narrative of the
Travels of Captains Lewis and Clarke, whose statements are no doubt
founded in truth, although it may be suspected that they require to be
received with some grains at least of allowance. According to these
gentlemen one bear which had received five shots in his lungs, and five
other wounds in various parts of his body, swam a considerable distance
to a sand bank in the river, and survived more than twenty minutes;
another that had been shot through the centre of the lungs, pursued at
full speed the man by whom the wound was inflicted for half a mile, then
returned more than twice that distance, dug himself a bed two feet deep
and five feet long, and was perfectly alive two hours after he received
the wound; and a third, although actually shot through the heart, ran
at his usual pace nearly a quarter of a mile before he fell. There is
no chance, they add, of killing him by a single shot, unless the ball
goes directly through the brain; a single hunter runs consequently no
little risk in venturing to attack an animal upon whom the most dangerous
wounds, if not instantaneously fatal, produce no obvious immediate
effects.
Notwithstanding the horror with which the natives regard this animal,
it is said that they sometimes succeed in rendering him tame; and a
whimsical story is told by the late Governor Clinton, on the authority
of an Indian trader, of an insult offered to a domesticated bear of this
species by an Indian of a different tribe from that to which the master
of the bear belonged, being regarded as a national affront, and producing
a war between the two tribes. The same veracious trader, it should be
added, did not scruple to affirm that the Grizzly Bear had actually been
seen fourteen feet long: the greatest measurement given on any credible
authority being somewhat less than nine feet. It may, however, well be
doubted whether the Grizzly Bear is capable of being domesticated; for it
would appear that all the known attempts that have hitherto been made to
render him docile and obedient have completely failed. In the narrative
of Major Long’s expedition, Mr. Say has given some particulars relative
to the manners of a half-grown individual which was kept chained in the
yard of one of the stations of the Missouri Fur Company; but which,
though far from having attained his full strength, was by no means
trusted even by those who were most familiar with him. They occasionally
ventured to play with him; but this was always done with caution and
reserve; and when, as was sometimes the case, he chanced to break loose
from his confinement, the whole establishment was thrown into a state of
confusion and alarm. The same gentleman also gives the history of two
individuals which were presented when very young to the Philadelphia
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account