As for the bears, they are fearless of man when inside the park, and come up close to the hotels and other buildings as if they looked upon these as part of their lunch route. It is the same with the other wild animals. They seem to know.
We hear of the same thing from East Africa. No one can shoot at game within a certain distance on each side of the East African Railway. That is the law and the wild beasts have come to know it. Travellers on that road tell us that crowds of wild animals can be seen on both sides of the road, antelopes, zebras, ostriches, deer, and the like, looking with curious eyes as the train goes by but not trying to get away.
This was not the case in the past, when people could shoot at them from the train. No one has posted up a bulletin in beast language telling that a treaty of peace had been signed between man and beast. But there stands the fact. These innocent creatures have lost all their old fear of the railway train. They seem to have told one another.
This is not the case with such dangerous brutes as the lion, the leopard, the hyena and the rhinoceros. These do not come within the terms of the treaty of peace. Travellers are free to shoot at them. As a result you do not see them among the animals that welcome the train.
THE SEAL AND THE ALLIGATOR
So far we have been talking of land animals, those that live, eat and breathe on solid ground. If we turn to the sea, we find it the native abode of the fish and of many animals lower than fish in nature's great family. And it is of interest to find that some land animals have gone back to the great world of waters, part of them to live there all the time, part to share their time between land and sea.
Among the first of these is the mighty whale, much the largest of living beings; also the porpoise, the dolphin, and other air-breathers that live in the ocean. Chief among those that spend their lives in part on the land are the seals. And these are the only animals of the land-sea kind that have ever been tamed, so we must say a few words about the seal.
There are many kinds of seals, some of them, like the sea-elephant of the southern seas, being very large. Others are small. All are splendid swimmers, their arms and hands acting as fins or oars, with which they can make their way very swiftly through the water. The ocean is their dining hall, in which a great dish of fish is ever ready for them, but their home is on island shores, where their young are born and brought up till they are able to swim.
The Harp-seal Afloat on the Ice