Characteristics and Habits 83 



friends and myself came across the tracks of a cougar, 

 and, having gone back for dogs, we returned and put 

 them on its trail. We were in full chase along the side 

 of a mountain when one of the dogs attracted my at- 

 tention by the way he acted. He turned aside, rushed 

 to a dead tree that lay along the ground, and began 

 excitedly snifhng at one end of it. I knew that the 

 cougar could not be there and went over to see what 

 was attracting the dog's attention, and saw instantly 

 that a Black Bear had been denned up under the log, 

 but, disturbed by the dog's approach, had broken out 

 and made off down the mountain in a foot and a half 

 of snow. 



These are merely examples of many such experiences, 

 and I have more than once followed the trail of a bear 

 and seen where it had made itself a new retreat. 



We know, since they lay up no store of provisions, 

 that the bear does not eat during its long retirement, 

 and although, in the north, it v/ould be possible for it 

 to provide itself with water by eating the snow that 

 shuts it in, we know that bears hibernating in captivity 

 (a thing by the way that they do not often do) neither 

 eat nor drink. 



One odd fact about the whole proceeding is that all 

 bears of the same class in the same locality go into win- 

 ter quarters and emerge from them within a few days 

 of each other. In the Selkirk Mountains in British 

 Columbia, I have seen where six grizzlies had broken 



