THE MUSQUAW, OR AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 397 
Like my dog Rory, he was accustomed to indue a regulation cap and gown, and 
under this learned shade to perambulate the college, and partake of the hospitality of its 
members. He would sometimes repel with some asperity the familiarity with which he 
was greeted by a strange dog, but was in general so qwet in his demeanour that he 
caused no alarm among those who knew him, even when indulging in some strange freak 
of humour. 
On one occasion he had been treated to sweetmeats at the house of a village dealer in 
such commodities, and entertained so affectionate a reminiscence of the spot, that he 
contrived to escape from bondage, and made at once for the coveted dainties. The owner 
of the shop took to flight at his entrance ‘e, and when his pursuers entered the shop they 
found Mr. Tig seated upon the counter, helping himself to brown sugar with a libei ral 
paw, and displayi ing such an appreci iation of his good fortune that it was not without 
much trouble that he was removed from the scene of his repast. He was rather peculiar 
in his tastes, and had attained to a highly civilized state of epicureanism, for his chief 
delicacies were not, as might be supposed, the produce of the garden or the field, but the 
more sophisticated dainties of hot muffs and cold ices. He was a most social animal, 
and if left alone, even for a short time, would cry and lament in the most pitiful 
of tones. 
This gregarious disposition was so excessively developed that when the poor animal 
was abruptly deprived of his accustomed intercourse with human friends his health 
speedily gave way under the horrors of solitude ; he refused to eat, ran continually about 
his den, in the hope of making his escape and rejoining his collegiate acquaintances, and 
was one day found lying dead in his eage. 
The fur of this Bear is rather valuable on account of its warmth and beauty, and the 
fat and the gall are also held in much esteem for various purposes, chiefly medicinal. 
AmerIcA furnishes several species of the Bear tribe, two of which, the Grizzly Bear 
and the Musquaw, or BLAcK BEAR, are the most conspicuous. 
The Black Bear is found in many parts of Northern America, and was formerly seen 
in great plenty. But as the fur and the fat are articles of ereat commercial and social 
value, the hunters have exercised their craft with such determination that the Black Bears 
are sensibly diminishing in number. The fur of the Black Bear is not so roughly shaggy 
as that of the European or the Syrian Bear, but is smooth and glossy in its appearance, 
so that it presents a very handsome aspect to the eye, while its texture is as thick 
and warm as that of its rougher-furred relations. 
This creature is but little given to animal food, and will restrict itself to a vegetable 
diet unless pressed by hunger. It is, however, very fond of the little snails which come 
up to feed on the sweet prairic-grass as soon as it is sufficiently moistened by showers or 
dew to suit the locomotive capabilities of those wet-loving molluscs, and is extremely fond 
of honey, in search of which dainty it displays great acuteness and perseverance. 
Few trees afford so unstable a footing, that the Black Bear will not surmount them in 
order to reach a nest of wild bees, and there are few obstacles which his ready claws and 
teeth will not remove in order to enable him to reach the subjacent dainty. Even if the 
honey and comb be deeply concealed in the hollow of a tree, and the entrance by which 
the bees find ingress and egress to and from their habitation be too small for the insertion 
of a paw, the Bear will set steadily to work with his teeth, and deliberately gnaw his 
way through the solid wood until he has made a breach sufficiently wide to answer his 
purpose. When once he has succeeded in bringing the combs to light, he scrapes them 
together with his fore-paws, and devours comb, honey, and young, without troubling 
himself about the stings of the surviving bees. 
The hunters, who are equally fond of honey, find that if it is eaten in too great 
plenty it produces very unpleasant symptoms, which may be counteracted by mixing it 
with the oil which they extract from the fat of the Bear. This custom of eating mingled 
oil and honey affords a partial explanation of the prophecy, “ Butter and honey shall he 
eat,” which was necessarily put forth in language which was in accordance with the 
popular ideas of the period. 
