238 A Bear Hunt in the Adirondacks. 



I had him opened carefully ; and examined in detail the 



viscera, and judge that they weighed between forty and 

 fifty pounds, though they were not put upon the balance 

 together, nor all of them weighed. The lungs were light 

 colored and- seemed uninjured, but had through and upon 

 them clots of coagulated blood. The whole cavity above 

 the diaphragm was filled with liquid blood to the amount 

 of several quarts. The heart was very large, firm and 

 healthy and had not been touched by the bullets. It mea- 

 sured five inches in length, the greatest diameter being 

 about four and a half inches; it resembled in shape the 

 heart of a pig. Here it may be noted that there is a sin- 

 gular resemblance between the vital organs of these ani- 

 mals; but forthe human like arms, clawed paws and furred 

 pelt, the likeness would be complete. 



The liver was healthy in appearance, and both heart and 

 liver when cooked were excellent eating. To the entrails 

 were attached long strips of fat, yielding much oil when 

 tried. 



The stomach of the bear was to me an interesting study ; 

 I carefully examined its contents before venturing to eat 

 any of the meat. First taking the size and shape, I pro- 

 ceeded to open it and found it filled with beech nuts; nor 

 could the most careful examination of the stomach's con- 

 tents evolve a trace of animal food. Had it been the sto- 

 mach of a wolf, a fox, or a wild-cat the minute teeth, 

 small bone splinters and rolls of hair of mice or squirrels 

 and the like, would have been found; there was no trace of 

 anything of this sort in the stomach of this bear. There 

 might have been two quarts or more of freshly masticated 

 beech nuts in the stomach when first opened; these he 

 had to procure singly from beneath the deep snow, by dig- 

 ging it away with his paws and rooting like a hog. When 

 started on the second day, he was ten miles from where the 

 trail was abandoned on the first day, and had rooted over 



