than if he was a vegetarian."

"That's one o' the cur'ous things you want to write about," replied Bruce,
with one of his odd chuckles. "Why is it a bear gets so fat he can hardly
walk along in September when he don't feed on much else but berries an'
ants an' grubs? Would you get fat on wild currants?

"An' why does he grow so fast during the four or five months he's denned up
an' dead to the world without a mouthful to eat or drink?

"Why is it that for a month, an' sometimes two months, the mother gives her
cubs milk while she's still what you might call asleep? Her nap ain't much
more'n two-thirds over when the cubs are born.

"And why ain't them cubs bigger'n they are? That natcherlist laughed until
I thought he'd split when I told him a grizzly bear cub wasn't much
bigger'n a house-cat kitten when born!"

"He was one of the few fools who aren't willing to learn--and yet you
cannot blame him altogether," said Langdon. "Four or five years ago I
wouldn't have believed it, Bruce. I couldn't actually believe it until we
dug out those cubs up the Athabasca--one weighed eleven ounces and the
other nine. You remember?"

"An' they were a week old, Jimmy. An' the mother weighed eight hundred
pounds."

For a few moments they both puffed silently on their pipes.

"Almost--inconceivable," said Langdon then. "And yet it's true. And it