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 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00022228402 
 
 
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 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil 
 
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Pictures and Stories 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
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 %. £itieon anb §ions, f£mtboit, ©bittfmrijh, anb Jteto Dork. 
 
 1871. 
 
(M onttnts. 
 
 THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 THE NARWHAL. 
 
 THE WALRUS. 
 
 THE REINDEER. 
 
 THE STAG. 
 
 THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 jAVE you ever seen a white bear? 
 He does not live in England. If 
 you look in the map, you will see 
 the North Pole marked. In the 
 country round the North Pole the white 
 bear lives, and that is why he is called the 
 Polar bear. 
 
 It is very cold where the white bear 
 lives. The ground is covered with snow 
 and the sea is blocked up with ice. 
 
 The bear does not mind the cold. See 
 what a warm fur coat he has on ! God has 
 given it to him, so that he cannot feel the 
 frost. 
 
 You and I could not walk upon the ice 
 as he does. But the soles of his feet 
 
THE POLAE BEAR 
 
 have long hairs growing to them ; so that 
 he treads as safely as if he had a pair 
 of fur boots on. 
 
 The bear lives near the sea-coast, for he 
 knows how to swim. He likes the water 
 as well as the land. And in the water he 
 can find plenty to eat. 
 
 You would not think it a pleasant sea to 
 swim in. In the winter it is quite frozen 
 over, and is as hard as iron. In the sum- 
 mer the ice does not go away. It floats 
 about in great blocks like the one in the 
 picture. 
 
 I must tell you about the bear in the 
 picture, and how he came on the block 
 of ice. 
 
 He is very fond of catching a seal for 
 his dinner. The seal lives in the water, 
 and has a funny round head, and a tail like 
 
 a fish, Now and then the seal pops up its 
 
 (id 
 
THE POLAR BEAR 
 
 head and looks about it. Sometimes it 
 will come out of the water, and drag itself 
 a little way, for it hardly knows how to 
 walk. And then it will lie down on the 
 ice, and go to sleep. But if any noise 
 wakens it, up it jumps and dives down 
 into the water. And the water is the 
 safest place for it. Now the bear, when he 
 wants his dinner, begins to look about for 
 a seal. He prowls over the ice, smelling 
 as he goes, until he gets to a hole where 
 the ice is melted. Here he stops. He 
 knows that this is a likely place for a seal 
 to pop up its head. He has only to wait 
 and have patience. 
 
 Sometimes he has not long to wait. Up 
 will come the round head of a seal. And 
 this is just what the bear wants. ' He drags 
 the poor seal out of the water, tears it to 
 pieces, and eats it. 
 
 (7) 
 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 But the bear does not always get his 
 dinner so quickly. The seal is a very 
 cunning creature, and is not always caught. 
 Then the bear gets tired of waiting. He 
 will jump into the water and swim about 
 looking for something to eat. Nothing 
 comes amiss to him. A bit of dead whale 
 he thinks a great treat. 
 
 He swims a long way from home, and is 
 glad to get upon a block of ice and rest 
 himself. From one block of ice he goes to 
 another. There is no knowing where he 
 may not travel to. If he reaches the shore 
 of some far off country, he is sure to get 
 into trouble. The people who live there 
 are not at all glad to see him. They will 
 come down to the shore and kill him. 
 
 The bear in the picture has gone from 
 one block of ice to another. At last he 
 spies a boat with two men in it. He is so 
 
 (8) 
 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 hungry, he would not mind having one of 
 the men for his dinner. 
 
 They have been looking at him as he lay 
 on the ice. His white coat was so like the 
 ice, they hardly knew what he was. But 
 he has come quite close, and has put one 
 paw on the edge of the boat. The men 
 will have to fight for their lives. 
 
 One man has struck him with a spear ; 
 but the bear has got the spear between his 
 teeth. It is a good thing that the other 
 man has a hatchet in his hand. He will 
 bring it down on the bear's head with 
 all his might. Then the bear will let go 
 the spear, and perhaps he will fall down 
 and die. 
 
 When the bear is dead the men will take 
 his nice warm fur, and make jackets and 
 caps of it, like those in the picture. 
 
 I must tell you what happens to the 
 
THE POLAR BEAR. 
 
 mother bear in the winter. She lies down 
 behind a block of ice, or else she scratches 
 a hole in the snow and gets into it. There 
 she sleeps till the spring. When she comes 
 out again she is very thin and very hungry. 
 She has two little cubs, no bigger than 
 two little rabbits. She is a very good 
 mother to her cubs. When she has caught 
 a seal, she will divide it between them, and 
 hardly keep a bit for herself. And if her 
 little cubs get killed, the poor mother will 
 lie down and die of grief. 
 
 (10) 
 
THE NARWHAL. 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^HAT can that curious-looking crea- 
 ture be in the picture ? 
 
 It is called the narwhal. It has 
 its home in the seas where the 
 great whale lives. 
 
 It is a kind of whale, only not so large 
 or so clumsy. People have even called it 
 the " white whale." 
 
 They like to hunt it when they can. 
 That long tusk which you see is ivory, 
 like the tusk of the elephant. 
 
 And that is why the man in the boat 
 wants to kill the poor narwhal. 
 
 It is not very easy to catch sight of the 
 narwhal. It is so shy that it keeps quite 
 
 out of reach of man. 
 
 (id 
 
THE NAEWHAL. 
 
 The man in the boat has been hunting 
 about for a long time. 
 
 Do you see what a funny little canoe it is ? 
 
 There is a round hole in the middle, and 
 here the man sits and paddles himself along. 
 
 There is a great ball of rope behind him. 
 One end of the rope is tied to the spear 
 he has in his hand. 
 
 The spear is called a harpoon, and it is 
 the weapon with which he is going to kill 
 the narwhal. 
 
 You might fancy the narwhal was very 
 fierce. It looks fierce with its great tusk. 
 But it is really gentle and harmless. It 
 plays about in the water with its com- 
 panions, and does no harm to anything. 
 
 Its skin is very handsome, as you see, 
 and has spots all over it. And the narwhal 
 swims and glides about in a very graceful 
 manner. 
 
 (12) 
 
THE NAEWHAL. 
 
 Will the man in the boat be able to kill 
 the narwhal ? 
 
 I think he will. He will strike it with 
 his harpoon. Then it will dive down deep 
 into the water, quite out of reach. But the 
 harpoon will stick fast in its body. And 
 the rope will keep tied to the end of the 
 harpoon. 
 
 The rope on the ball will unwind very 
 quickly indeed, as the narwhal keeps pulling 
 at it. But the man has taken care to have 
 plenty of rope. Before it has quite un- 
 wound itself, the narwhal is tired and stops. 
 
 Though it looks like a great fish, it does 
 not breathe as the fishes do. It breathes 
 the air, as you and I do. So that it has to 
 come up to the top of the water, or it 
 would die. 
 
 The man guesses where it will come up. 
 He has the other end of the rope in his 
 
 B (13) 
 
THE NAEWHAL. 
 
 hand ; so the narwhal has not got loose. 
 He paddles along very fast, and soon comes 
 up to the poor tired creature. Then he 
 strikes it with a fresh harpoon. 
 
 Again the narwhal dives down. But 
 this time it does not stay so long as before. 
 When it comes up to breathe, its enemy is 
 waiting for it. And so the hunt goes on, 
 until the narwhal is killed. 
 
 Now and then a narwhal is found that 
 has two tusks. 
 
 The narwhal in the picture is one of 
 
 J. 
 
 these rare creatures. 
 
 (W 
 
THE WALRUS. 
 
 )HE walrus lives in the cold seas of the 
 north, where there are great blocks 
 of ice floating about in the water. 
 The whale lives in these seas too, 
 and the walrus is almost as big as the whale. 
 The picture will show you what a curious 
 creature the walrus is. He has a funny 
 round head like a seal, and two long tusks 
 that look as if they could do a great deal 
 of mischief. 
 
 It is not pleasant to be in a boat when a 
 walrus is trying to upset it. He will knock 
 a hole in the side of the boat with his tusks, 
 so that the water can get in. His eyes 
 look very bright and fierce while he is 
 doing it. But he is not really fierce. He 
 
 (15) 
 
THE WALKUS. 
 
 is gentle enough when he is let alone, and 
 he only attacks the boat because a harpoon 
 has been thrown at him. He does not at- 
 tempt to hurt the sailors, though he has 
 knocked their boat to pieces. 
 
 He is very fond of his friends, the other 
 walruses, who are swimming about in the 
 sea. If one of them gets struck with a 
 harpoon, he will dive down and fetch a 
 whole crowd of walruses and help to rescue 
 him, so that the sailors have often to get 
 away as fast as they can. 
 
 As for the mother walrus, there is nothing 
 she will not do to protect her little one 
 from danger. When she is hurt by the 
 harpoon, her great fear is lest her little one 
 should be hurt too. She will hide it under 
 her body and try to cover it with her fins. 
 No matter how badly she is hurt, if only 
 her little one can be safe. 
 
 (16) 
 

THE WALRUS. 
 
 The little walrus is just as fond of its 
 mother, and will keep as close to her as it 
 can. Not long ago some sailors, who were 
 out in those seas looking for whales, killed 
 a mother walrus ; she was one of a great 
 herd, and her little one was with her. The 
 sailors tied the body of the mother walrus 
 to the boat, and dragged it along towards 
 the ship. The little one went after it, and 
 kept as close as it could. It kept diving 
 and swimming round and round, and would 
 not go away. At last the sailors threw a 
 noose made of rope over its head and its 
 two paws, and caught it. Then it was 
 lifted on deck, and made fast to a ring so 
 that it could not get away. 
 
 At first the little walrus would not eat 
 anything. But by-and-by it began to pick 
 up the bits of pork given it by the sailors. 
 It would have liked shrimps and mussels 
 
 (17) 
 
THE WALRUS. 
 
 better, and as soon as the ship came to land 
 the sailors got plenty of shrimps for it 
 to eat. 
 
 The little walrus was put in a box with 
 holes in it for it to breathe through, and 
 sent to one of the public gardens in Lon- 
 don. 
 
 The two great tusks that you see growing 
 from the mouth of the walrus, are very 
 long and heavy. 
 
 I will tell you what use they are to him. 
 He can scrape the shrimps and shell -fish 
 out of the sand with them. And he can 
 use them to help him to climb up the 
 blocks of ice. Sometimes, when he wants 
 to go to sleep, he sticks them into the 
 ice, and rests upon them. But this is 
 not always safe. It may happen that the 
 tide goes out, and leaves the poor walrus 
 hanging by his tusks to the rock. If he 
 
 (18) 
 
THE WALRUS. 
 
 cannot get loose he is in danger of hanging 
 there till he dies. 
 
 People try to kill the walrus for the sake 
 of his tusks and of his skin. His skin is 
 very thick, and makes good strong leather. 
 And the fat of his great body is made into 
 oil. So that it is quite worth while to go 
 out to hunt the walrus as well as the whale. 
 
 The walrus greatly enjoys himself in the 
 water. He blows up the water through 
 holes in his head as the whale does, and 
 makes a loud noise that can be heard a 
 long way off. 
 
 It is not so easy to kill him with the har- 
 poon as it is to kill the whale. His skin is 
 so thick and tough, that the spear will not 
 always go through it. But when the walrus 
 is on shore, it is more easy to kill him. 
 
 The walrus likes to spend part of his time 
 on land. Many hundred walruses often 
 
 (19) 
 
THE WALRUS. 
 
 lie stretched on shore, or on the blocks of 
 ice, taking their naps. The sailors have to 
 be very quick indeed, or the whole herd 
 will wake, and in a few moments pop into 
 the water. 
 
 I will tell you how the sailors do. They 
 steal round till they get to the last row of 
 walruses; I mean those which lie close to 
 the water's edge. If the walrus can once get 
 into the sea he is safe ; but the sailors do 
 not mean that he should. They fire off 
 their guns, and shoot as many of the herd 
 as they can. The poor walruses who are 
 shot lie dead at the water's edge. Then 
 the other walruses who have been roused 
 up by the noise of the shooting, begin to 
 be in a great fright. They make at once 
 for the sea. But it is not very easy to get 
 there. They cannot walk well, for their 
 hind feet are joined like a fin, and they 
 
 (20) 
 
THE WALEUS. 
 
 shuffle along rather than walk. Besides, 
 there are the dead bodies of their friends 
 lying in the way, and it takes some time 
 to get over them. They are in a great 
 hurry, as you may think, and jostle and 
 push against each other, and hurt each 
 other very much with their tusks. But 
 with all their efforts they cannot make 
 their escape. Some of them are wounded, 
 and many more are killed. 
 
 When the walrus finds there is no way 
 of getting back to the sea, he will some- 
 times turn on the man who is trying to kill 
 him. Then he strikes out with his great 
 finny paws, and is as fierce as at other 
 times he is gentle. But he is so clumsy 
 on the land, that, in spite of his courage, he 
 has often the worst of it. And the fight 
 ends by his falling a victim to the weapons 
 of his enemy. 
 
 (21) 
 
THE REINDEER. 
 
 m 
 
 CV - 
 
 fAPLAND is a very cold country to 
 P live in, and the Laplander would 
 B be badly off if it were not for the 
 $° reindeer. 
 
 If he wants to go from one place to 
 another, he can harness his reindeer to a 
 sledge, and drive over the snow, as you see 
 him doing in the picture. The reindeer 
 Avhirls the sledge along at a great rate, and 
 can go many miles without stopping. 
 
 And look how the Laplander is wrapped 
 up, to keep him from the cold ! For all his 
 warm clothes he has to thank the reindeer. 
 His coat and his cap are made of the skin, 
 that has all the thick soft hair left upon it. 
 And besides his coat and his cap, his boots 
 
 (22} 
 
THE REINDEER. 
 
 and his gloves are made of it as well. And 
 at night, though it freezes so sharp, he lies 
 warm and snug. His bed and his blankets 
 are both made of the deer skin. 
 
 The horse could not live in Lapland 
 through the winter. The cold would soon 
 kill it. And it would have nothing to eat. 
 There are no grassy meadows, or corn fields, 
 as there are in England. 
 
 I dare say you wonder how the reindeer 
 gets a living. But God provides food for 
 all the creatures He has made. And so 
 the reindeer finds plenty to eat even in 
 Lapland. A little plant grows all over the 
 ground, and on the trunks of the trees. It 
 is not pretty to look at, but God has placed 
 it there for the reindeer to eat. It is called 
 the reindeer moss. 
 
 In the winter, when the snow covers the 
 ground, the reindeer have to root about 
 
 (23) 
 
THE REINDEER 
 
 with their noses to find the moss. But if 
 the hard ice covers the ground, then the 
 reindeer cannot get at the moss. The Lap- 
 lander has no other food for them, so he 
 cuts down some of the trees, and lets the 
 deer peel off the moss that grows upon 
 them. But he is glad when the ice on 
 the ground begins to thaw. If it lasted a 
 very long time, the reindeer would die of 
 hunger. 
 
 The Laplander is a rich man when he 
 has a herd of reindeer. They are so hardy 
 he need not have any stables or sheds to 
 keep them in. He need only drive them 
 to the mountains in summer, and bring 
 them down to the plains in winter. 
 
 You will see that the reindeer is as good 
 as a horse to the Laplander. And now I 
 am going to tell you that it is of the same 
 use to him as the cow is to us. The milk 
 
 (24^ 
 
THE REINDEER. 
 
 of the reindeer is very nice and sweet ; and 
 the herd are driven up every day to be 
 milked. 
 
 When the reindeer are being milked the 
 women have to light a fire, that the smoke 
 may drive the gnats away, or else the deer 
 would not stand still. 
 
 There are a great many more gnats in 
 Lapland than there are in England. They 
 fill the air like a cloud of dust, and if you 
 were to open your mouth it would be full 
 of gnats in a minute ! 
 
 The deer are very much afraid of the 
 gnats, and would run any where to get away 
 from them. They run up to the tops of the 
 mountains, where it is too cold for the 
 gnats to live. There is no food for them 
 on the mountains ; but they would rather 
 go without eating than be bitten by the 
 gnats. 
 
 C (25) 
 
THE REINDEER. 
 
 The Laplander does not want them to 
 get thin and weak. He wants them to 
 feed on the moss which is growing on the 
 plains below. So he and his dogs go after 
 them to drive them back again. 
 
 There is a great deal of noise and running 
 about before the deer are made to come 
 down. When they have been brought back, 
 the Laplander and his dogs stay with them 
 all day, to keep them in the place where 
 their food is to be found. 
 
 He may well wish them to get fat. All 
 the long winter, he and his wife and chil- 
 dren live on the dried flesh of the rein- 
 deer. 
 
 The reindeer are killed as cows and 
 sheep are with us. And the Laplander 
 wants no other meat. The tongue is 
 thought the best bit, and is often sent to 
 
 England. 
 
 (36) 
 
THE STAG. 
 
 N the days of old, when the Norman 
 kings sat upon the throne, there were 
 forests in England. The trees grew 
 thick, and met overhead. 
 Here the stags used to run wild. And 
 the kings were so fond of hunting, that they 
 did not wish the trees to be cut down, or 
 the land to be sown with corn. They liked 
 better to ride with their men through the 
 glades and deep dells, looking for the deer. 
 And because the forests were not large 
 enough, they caused the villages to be 
 burned, and the land laid waste, to make 
 more room for the deer. 
 
 Those days are gone by. The forests 
 have long ago been cut down, and the land 
 
 (27) 
 
THE STAG. 
 
 is made to yield crops of grass and corn. 
 There are but few places left where the 
 stag runs wild. 
 
 In England, he lives in the grounds or 
 park of some rich man. 
 
 When he is hunted, he is driven out of 
 the park into the open country. The 
 hunters and the dogs ride after him in full 
 cry. But they do not mean to kill him. 
 When the dogs come up to him, they take 
 hold of him without hurting him. They 
 have been taught to do so. For the stag 
 will be taken back into the park, and 
 perhaps hunted a second time. 
 
 But in Scotland, where the stag runs 
 wild, he meets with a much worse fate. 
 
 He is driven out of his native thicket by 
 the cry of the hounds. He is fleet almost 
 as the wind, and soon leaves them behind. 
 Then he stops and listens. There is no 
 
 (28) 
 
THE STAG. 
 
 sound either of the dogs or of the men. 
 He is too far off to hear them. You may 
 see him, in the picture, standing with his 
 head erect and his ears on the stretch. He 
 soon forgets the danger he has been in, and 
 thinks himself secure. 
 
 But again he hears the sound of the 
 hunters. They have found him out, and 
 are coming in the distance. Off he runs at 
 full speed. But he stops sooner than he 
 did before. 
 
 Again he listens, and again he hears the 
 dogs. He is getting spent, and cannot run 
 so long a distance. The dogs are gaining 
 upon him, and there is no escape. 
 
 His last resource is to jump into a stream 
 or river, and swim across it. He will even 
 be so cunning as to keep under water, and 
 let nothing be seen but the tip of his nose! 
 
 At length the poor stag is run down. He 
 
 (29) 
 
THE STAG. 
 
 turns and faces the dogs, and strikes at 
 them with his horns. He is said then to 
 " stand at bay." 
 
 In these days, when people are so fond 
 of guns, they go out to shoot at the stag on 
 the hills and moors of Scotland. This is 
 called " deer-stalking." 
 
 The hunter has to climb the mountains, 
 and run stooping along, for fear the herd 
 should see him. He will lie hidden behind 
 some rock or stone for hours at a time, 
 watching for a pair of horns moving among 
 the fern. Then he will creep as near to the 
 stag as he can, and fire his gun. If the 
 stag is not killed he will gallop away, and 
 the dogs after him. 
 
 Once a year the great spreading horns of 
 the stag drop off. For a little while he is 
 without any horns at all. Then he hides 
 himself in the thicket, and never comes out 
 
 (30) 
 
THE STAG. 
 
 except at night. But in ten days the new 
 horns begin to grow ; and in three months' 
 time they are as handsome as they were 
 before. 
 
 The little fawn lives in the deepest part 
 of the thicket, and keeps close by the side 
 of its mother. The mother is called a hind. 
 She is a very timid creature, and will run 
 away at the rustling of a leaf. But when 
 her fawn is in danger, she becomes bold in 
 it's defence. If she hears the cry of the 
 hunters, she will run before them, and lead 
 them away from the place where her little 
 one lies hidden. 
 
 ;ai) 
 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 j|HE Newfoundland dog gets his long 
 name from the Island of Newfound- 
 land. That is his native place, and 
 if you look on the map of North 
 America you will find out where it is. 
 
 He is very useful in his own country. 
 He is so large and strong that he can work 
 like a pony. 
 
 The people there cut down the trees, and 
 send them to the sea coast. The wood is 
 sold for timber, and taken away in ships. 
 But it is a long way to the coast, and the 
 trees are packed on sledges. Who do you 
 think draws the sledge? Three or four of 
 the great dogs ! 
 
 The master puts them in harness, and 
 
 (32) 
 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 sends them off with the wood. They know 
 the way quite well, and do not want any 
 one to go with them. When they come to 
 the sea coast, they know where to stop. 
 And when they have got rid of the load of 
 wood, they trot home again with the empty 
 sledge. 
 
 Besides drawing the sledge, this dog can 
 do a great many other things. He carries 
 a basket in his mouth, if his master tells, 
 him. He never lets it drop or leaves it 
 behind. If any one tried to steal it from 
 him, he would be very angry, and most 
 likely bite. But he does not often bite. 
 He is the most gentle of all the dogs. He 
 will let his master's children play with him, 
 and pull his ears, and ride on his back, and 
 do what they like with him. 
 
 I dare say you have seen one of these 
 
 great dogs swim about in the water. He 
 
 (33; 
 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 likes the water, and is as much at home 
 there as he is on the land. If you threw 
 in a stick and told him to fetch it out, he 
 would wag his tail, and be very pleased. 
 He would jump in and swim after the stick, 
 and soon bring it back again. 
 
 The dog in the picture has been into the 
 water. He has a rope in his mouth, and he 
 is bringing it to his master. His master is 
 standing on the shore, waiting for him. 
 
 There has been a great storm, and a ship 
 has been driven on the sands. The sailors 
 cannot get her off again, and she will soon 
 be broken in pieces by the waves. The 
 sailors are in danger of being drowned ; for 
 no boat can get near them, and the people 
 on shore cannot do anything to help them. 
 
 A little time ago the dog's master came 
 down to the beach, to see what was the 
 matter. He was very sorry for the poor 
 
 (34) 
 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 men in the ship, and he thought he would 
 make his dog do something to help them. 
 He put his stick in Ponto's mouth (for Ponto 
 was the name of the dog), atid told him to 
 carry it out to the ship. 
 
 The dog knew what he meant, and jumped 
 into the water. He had hard work to swim, 
 for the sea was so rough it drove him back. 
 But he tried again, and at last got very near 
 to the ship with the stick in his mouth. 
 
 The sailors were very glad to see him. 
 They knew T he was come to help them, and 
 they got a long rope, and threw one end 
 to him. Ponto dropped the stick and laid 
 hold of the rope. Then he turned round, 
 and began to swim back to the shore. He 
 wanted to take the rope to his master. 
 
 This was just what his master had sent him 
 for. He knew that the sailors would make 
 their end of the rope fast to the ship. And 
 
 (35) 
 
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 
 
 the men on shore would make their end fast. 
 And there would be a kind of bridge made 
 by the rope for the sailors to get along to 
 the shore. 
 
 In the picture, the good dog has just 
 brought the end of the rope to his master. 
 Very soon all the poor sailors in the ship 
 will be safe on land. They will owe their 
 lives to the courage of the dog. 
 
 I will tell you why this kind of dog can 
 swim so well. His toes are joined one to 
 the other, a little like the toes of the duck. 
 The duck's feet are called webbed feet. The 
 dog's feet are half webbed, because the toes 
 join only half way up. 
 
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