ZIG-Z:AGS AT THE ZOO. 169

the swect communion of sole, fall asleep ; 1f there be only one, he curls up, and opposes his palms to his soles, and falls asleep so. - Bango, the hairy-cared bear in the end cage, does this. A man

- who once said it was his sole attitude was driven to seck refuge

o from an infuriated populace in the L scal pond. Notwithstanding this, e, and all that has been aid about " brutc instinct in animals, nobody can gaze at, for instance, Michael,

| i the .big brown bear, without K NERRRRA RS scemmg at once that his sole is af L quite big enough for his body,

j ll"fi" i . big as that is. \While the

family motto of Samson, the big Polar bear, is understood to be, O my prophetic sole, mine ankle!" This, how- cver, 18 another story, and relates to Samson's slight lameness in a hind foot. Samson is a fine fellow in the matter of size. The only

CSILIT ICERERG? short thing about him is his

tail, unless you count his temper. And there really 1s some excuse for the short temper. The ] cimate would be a sufficient excuse in itsclf It ”

might, perhaps, be reasonable to sav that the English climate is sufficient excuse for anybody's shortness of temper, but on the Polar bear it has the effect of that of India on an Eng- lishman. Both Samson and Mrs, Sam- son—her name 1s Lil—manage fairly well in the winter, al- though they would be the more comfort- able for an ice- berg or two. But mn the sum- mer they keep as much as pos- sible to the coolness of their cave, and look dolefully out at the wvisitors with just the ex- pression of a fat Cockney when he says, “ Aimn't it 'orrid ‘ot ? Still, Samson has had twenty-one

of these summers now, and is bigger and strongcer than ever, so that it 1s plain that his heaith does not suller

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