ii6 The Black Bear 



carefully around as though to make sure he was alone, 

 and then slipped into the water and swam twice the 

 length of the plunge. Just as he was crawling out on to 

 the bank again, Kerfoot snapped his camera at him and, 

 frightened by the sound, the bear took to his heels and 

 climbed up a near-by tree. He settled himself about 

 forty feet from the ground in the sunlight, and having 

 apparently made up his mind that he had been scared 

 over nothing settled down for a comfortable snooze. 

 We now made up our minds that we would like a 

 second picture to complete our record of the perform- 

 ance, and walked over to the bottom of the tree where 

 the bear was ensconced, but, as is usually the case with 

 these black animals, we found that the position in which 

 he sat did not lend itself to a picture, so we sat down 

 under the tree determined to wait till he changed his 

 position. Nothing happened for fifteen or twenty 

 minutes, when, quite unexpectedly, the bear made 

 up his mind that he was not going to be held prisoner 

 any longer, and with a great puffing and snorting, 

 started stern first down the tree. Kerfoot, who by 

 this time had gotten over his initial ideas about Black 

 Bear, picked up a stick and hammered on the trunk to 

 scare him back again. But this was one of the bears 

 who, when he bluffed, bluffed to the limit, and, instead 

 of retreating, he redoubled his growls and snarls and 

 continued to come steadily down the tree. By this 

 time I was becoming interested and was making bets 



