And so, a letter appears in the Dec. 5 LRB, courtesy of Jane Campbell of Oxford.
Ms. Campbell adds to the conversation started by Trotter's essay. She writes of a passage in “The Biography of a
Grizzly,” by Ernest Thompson Seton, that recounts the aftermath felt by a bear cub survivor,
injured in his hind leg, from a hunter’s bullet after the man had shot and
killed his mother and three siblings:
“As cold night came down, he (Wahb by name) missed (his
mother) more and more again, and he whimpered as he limped along, a miserable,
lonely, little motherless bear … not lost in the mountains, for he had no home
to seek, but so sick and lonely, and with such pain in his foot, and in his
stomach a craving for a drink that would never more be his. That night he found
a hollow log, and crawling in, he tried to dream that his mother’s great furry
arms were around him, and he snuffled himself to sleep.”
Ms. Campbell’s letter continues:
… Wahb survives to be the biggest, fiercest grizzly in the
region but never has a mate or exacts revenge on hunters. He dies of old age.
Next: Running for
Your Life: How’s About “Ducks, Newburyport”?
