120 The Black Bear 



pression. When he starts out, he knows where is he 

 going and goes there. When he starts a job, he finishes 

 it and goes on to the next. I have followed one along 

 and over the high ridges of the Rockies for two days 

 on end when the light snow of early fall showed every 

 step he took. I have tracked one from ground-squirrel 

 burrow to marmot hole; seen where two hours of in- 

 credibly laborious digging had yielded him a mouthful 

 of breakfast; followed his careful search for more 

 provender, to be got by more digging, and seen where, 

 the possibilities of that particular ridge having been 

 exhausted, he had started on a predetermined journey 

 across country for another feeding ground. The 

 grizzly is working for his living and knows it. 



But Black Bear act for all the world like boys on a 

 rainy Saturday. They Ve got nothing but time, and 

 the one problem in life is how to kill it. Watch one for 

 a couple of hours and you'll see him start forty different 

 things, finish none of them, and then sit down and 

 swing his head hopelessly from side to side as though 

 to say, ^'Now what shall I do next?" 



If you have only seen these animals in captivity 

 you are apt to think that their air of restless boredom 

 is due to their confinement ; that they don't know what 

 to do with themselves because they are unable, in a 

 bear pit, to follow their natural vocations. I am 

 always sorry for wild animals in captivity, but I am, I 

 think, less sorry for the Black Bear than for most 



