6o The Black Bear 



had just covered my camera and Hash-pan with bark 

 peeled from a couple of small saplings and taken shelter 

 myself under a thick, umbrella-like tree, when I saw a 

 small Black Bear coming through the woods and headed 

 straight for my hiding place. At every flash of light- 

 ning he paused and made a da^sh for the nearest tree, 

 but by the time he got there the flash would be over 

 and he would start on again. Finally, there came a 

 blinding streak of jagged lire, accompanied by a split- 

 ting crash, and the small bear made one jump into the 

 tree that happened to be nearest him, went hand over 

 hand to the extreme top, rolled himself into a little ball 

 with his nose between his paws, and never moved until 

 the storm had gone by. 



But the Black Bear also resorts to trees of his own 

 accord, using them as a loafing place and even as a 

 sleeping apartment. I have seen one lying prone on 

 his back on a big limb, all four feet in the air, as utterly 

 comfortable and care-free as a fat man in a hammock. 



In regions where the grizzly and the Black Bear are 

 both found, the Black Bear spends much of his leisure 

 among the branches and often has special trees that he 

 uses as sleeping quartei*s. Some of these, from con- 

 stant use, become as deeply scarred and worn as an old 

 wooden sidewalk in a lumbering town; and I have 

 seen them that appeared to have been used for years. 



One sometimes hears it claimed that a Black Bear 

 can only climb a tree around which he can conveniently 



