The Wonders of the Jungle Volume I Part 14

"h.e.l.lo, this is also strange!" he said. "Here are a lot of _bees_ buzzing near the ground on the _right_ side of the road. And here are a lot of _ants_ scrambling over the ground on the _left_ side of the road."

"Never mind about the camel, and the bees and the ants," the policemen said impatiently. "We want to know about the thief who stole the money. You have not found any other footprints except the camel's?"

"That is quite true," the clever man said. "But as the _camel_ could not steal the money, there must be a _man_ riding on the camel. He must be the thief."

"But why didn't the thief leave any footprints?" the policemen asked.

"Because he must have ridden his camel from the roadway right to the edge of the gra.s.s," the clever man answered. "Then he must have jumped down upon the gra.s.s, where he knew he would not leave any footprint.

He must have walked very quietly on the gra.s.s up to the tree where the traveler was sleeping, and stolen the money. Then he must have walked back quietly to the camel and ridden off."

"But what sort of a man is the thief?" the police asked. "How can we find him, if you do not tell us what he is like?"

"I cannot tell you a thing about the thief, or what he looks like, as he hasn't even left a footprint," the clever man answered. "But I can tell you _all about the camel_. The camel is _blind_ in his _right eye_, and _lame_ in his _left hind foot_. And on his back he is carrying two packages, one on each side; the package on the _right_ side has _honey_ in it, and the package on the _left_ side has _corn_ in it. So you must search for a man who is riding a camel loaded like that. He is the thief."

So the police searched for a man who was riding a camel which was blind in his right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey in a package on his right side, and corn in a package on his left side. After following the camel's footprints on the ground for a long time, the police at last came to a village.

They searched through the village, and found many men riding camels.

But there was only one man riding a camel blind in his right eye, lame in left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right side, and corn on the left side. So the police knew that he was the thief, and took him before the judge. Then the thief said that it was quite true that he stole the money.

Afterwards the judge turned to the clever man and asked him how he knew all that about the camel.

"You didn't _see_ the camel at all, but only his footprints," the judge said. "Then how did you know that the camel was blind in his right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right side, and corn on the left side?"

"It was quite simple," the clever man answered very modestly. "First, about the camel being blind in his right eye. He had nibbled at the shrubs and bushes growing on the left side of the road, for at each bite I found the leaves cut off clean by his teeth. On the right side of the road there were also plenty of good shrubs and bushes, but the camel had not taken a single bite at any of them. That showed that he did not even _see_ those shrubs and bushes on his right side. And that of course meant that his right eye was blind."

"That is very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you know that the camel was lame in his left hind foot?"

"That was just as simple," the clever man again answered very modestly. "As the camel walked along, the marks of his two front feet and right hind foot were quite deep and clear on the ground. But the mark of his left hind foot was very faint. That showed that the camel was limping, and the left hind foot only just touched the ground. So I knew that he was lame in that foot."

"That is also very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you know that the camel was carrying honey on his right side, and corn on his left?"

"That was the simplest of all," the clever man answered most modestly.

"As the camel was limping, nearly every step he took jerked the load on his back. So a few drops of the honey fell to the ground from the package on his right side, and a few grains of the corn fell to the ground from the package on his left side."

"But you could not see very well here and there on the ground just a few drops of honey or just a few grains of corn?" the judge said.

"_I_ could not," the clever man answered, "but the _bees_ and the _ants_ could! On the right side of the road I found a swarm of bees here and there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up the honey.

And on the left side of the road I saw a whole lot of ants here and there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up and carry away the grains of corn."

Now was it not really clever of that man to find all that out about the camel, without ever seeing the camel before? But, as you understand, he knew all about the _habits_ of different animals; and so he knew what camels and bees and ants always do.

CHAPTER XIII

Bears

_Bears_ are such funny animals, at least some kinds of bears, that you may like to know all about them.

Bears are found in many countries, and in some countries there are several kinds of bears.

But you must remember this: _hardly any bear lives in the tropics_; that means countries where the sun is almost overhead all the months of the year, so that it is very hot all the time.

But why does not the bear usually live there? Can you guess?

Because the bear is a very _hairy_ animal; and his hair is just like a thick coat, so that he cannot live where it is very hot all the time.

Of course, once upon a time the bear lived only in places where it was very cold, and so he grew thick hair to keep out the cold; but now that he _has_ a thick coat of hair, he cannot go down to hot countries to live. He does not mind living in a cold country; and the colder the country is, the thicker is his coat of hair.

What does the bear eat? Most kinds of bears eat berries, fruits, soft roots of trees, and fish when they can catch it. One or two kinds of bears eat other things also, which I shall tell you about very soon.

The bears that live in cold countries, where there is heavy snow in winter, cannot get anything at all to eat in winter. Why? Because there are no fruits and berries in winter, and the roots of trees are frozen hard and covered up by the snow.

Then if those bears cannot get anything to eat in winter, what do they do? They _sleep_!

You know that when you are asleep you do not feel hungry; but as soon as you wake up you feel hungry again. It is just the same with the bear; he does not feel very hungry while he sleeps. And he _sleeps right through the winter months_!

Still, while he is asleep all that time, does he not feel a little bit hungry? He does. So he uses up the store of food inside his body! I have told you that the camel carries a store of food in his hump. The bear has no hump, of course, but he has a _thick chunk of fat all around his body_ just under his skin; and that chunk of fat is his _store of food_.

So, when the bear sleeps snugly in his den in the winter months, the chunk of fat is slowly used up inside his body, and keeps him from being very hungry.

Of course, he eats such a lot just before the winter, that the chunk of fat is very thick when he goes to bed. But the chunk is all used up when he wakes up at the end of the winter, and then he is very hungry again!

But there is a kind of bear that lives in a place where there is snow and ice almost all the time. What can _he_ do?

He cannot sleep always! So he has to get something to eat now and then, and I shall tell you how he does that.

_The Polar Bear_

This kind of bear is called the _polar bear_. (See the picture on page 155.) He lives in a place far up North, where it is always very cold.

The land is nearly covered with snow, and the water at the top of the sea is frozen. There are no berries or fruits there for the polar bear to eat; so he has to live on fish, and seal, which is a water animal.

The way the bear catches the fish or the seal is this:

He makes a hole in the ice with his paws, so that he can reach the water below. Then he sits down very quietly by the edge of the hole, and waits for a fish or a seal to swim past the hole. Then the bear pounces on it very quickly with his paw or his jaws, and catches it.

If the ice is too thick for the bear to make a hole through it, he has to try another way. He comes right down to the part of the sea where some of the ice has broken off. There he chooses a place at the edge of the ice, close to the water; and he waits there for a fish or a seal to swim past. Then he pounces on it and catches it.

Now I shall tell you a few special things that the polar bear has.

His coat of hair is much _thicker_ than the coat of any other bear.

Why? Because he lives in a colder place than any other bear; so he _needs_ a thicker coat. Also, he sometimes has to swim through the icy water to get to some floating field of ice, so that he can catch fish from it. Then, although his hair gets wet, he has a thick lining of fat inside his coat to keep him warm.

The next special thing about the polar bear is that his hair is _all white_--like the color of everything around him, which, as I have told you, is just snow and ice. So when the polar bear sits down very quietly on the snow and ice, n.o.body can see him even from a short distance, because he is the same color as the snow and ice. And that is why the fish or the seal does not see him, and so gets caught.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Polar Bear]