Blackbear 1061 



In this connection, Merriam says:*' "In traversing un- 

 frequented portions of the [Adirondack] wilderness one occa- 

 sionally meets with a tree whose bark has been scratched and 

 torn at some little height from the ground, in a manner that 

 cannot fail to excite his attention and surprise. This is the 

 work of the Bear, but the object of it is not known. Hunters 

 claim that whenever a Bear passes one of these trees he stops, 

 stands on his hind-legs, and gnaws and scratches it before 

 resuming his journey. The only account of the strange pro- 

 ceeding that I have seen is given by Audubon and Bachman." 



But the fact is widely known among hunters, as the fol- 

 lowing extracts show: 



"Why [says L. Allen **] do Bears leave their teeth marks 

 across a tree or a sapling, as high as they can reach, standing 

 on hind-legs ? The highest marks are always freshest. Is it 

 the same Bear that makes the higher mark, to see how much 

 he has grown, or another Bear who can go him that much 

 better?" 



" Bears bite trees all through the summer. I think they 

 do that to see who is the tallest one. Only he Bears bite trees. 

 They bite them along their roads, and the one that makes the 

 tallest marks bosses the road. After you kill the big one you 

 don't see another he Bear for a long time on that road. She 

 Bears pass any time."''' 



"In the running season, which is at its height in June, the 

 Bears blaze it [the bear-trail] by biting trees, each leaving his 

 mark as high up as he can reach."'" 



Other Bear-trees are described in the "Biological Survey 

 of Texas," by Vernon Bailey, who writes:" "Near one of the 

 trails in the head of Dog Canyon in the Guadalupe Mountains 

 a Douglas spruce a foot in diameter had served for many years 

 as a gnawing tree, while further up the gulch a larger yellow 

 pine was well blazed and deeply scarred by many old and a 



" Mam. Adir., 1884, pp. 101-2. 



" L. Allen, East Wareham, Mass., Recreation Magazine, April, 1900, p. 305. 



" J. B. Bumham, Forest and Stream, March 18, 1899, p. 208. 



'" J. B. Bumham, Forest and Stream, January 7, 1899, p. 3. 



" N. A. Fauna, No. 25, 1905, p. 188. 



