lOO MAMMALIA. 



out of time. In tact, as they ^rew apace, the parental visitations in- 

 creased so rapidly I began to tear she would put an end to my Bear 

 investigations by chastising the lives out of them, but of late she has 

 slackened in her attentions, and I am in hopes of following the 

 growth of [^rs//s Amcricaniis trom babyhood to adolescence."''' 



Black Bears commonly have two or three cubs at a birth, and rare- 

 ly, four. It is doubtful if they have young oftener than every other 

 year. 



Early in February, 1878, E. L. Sheppard, J. W. Shultz, and E. N. 

 Arnold, while on a Panther hunt in the country northeast of Big Otter 

 Lake, came across aline cf dimples in the snow that indicated, to 

 their practised eyes, the course taken by a large Bear some time 

 before, and now almost hidden by a heavy fall of snow that had oc- 

 curred about three weeks previously. Judging that the animal had 

 been searching for winter quarters they determined to follow it; but 

 being out of provisions Sheppard and Shultz returned to camp for a 

 new supply, while Arnold took the track. Owing to the thickness 

 of the forest the snow had not drifted and therefore he had little dif- 

 ficulty in keeping the track, though nearly a foot of snow covered 

 it. He soon reached the den, which was an excavation in the 

 side of a knoll. Not only was the Bear not asleep, but she was ex- 

 tremely lively and earnest in her attempts to get out. Fortunately, 

 however, she was already frozen in, and during her tierce and furious 

 efforts to reach Mr. Arnold he succeeded in shooting her dead. Not- 

 withstanding the fact that he was well armed Mr. Arnold avers that 

 if the Bear had had a free exit from her den he doubts much if he 

 would have lived to narrate the occurrence. After killing the Bear 

 he discovered that there were three living young beneath her in the 

 den. He put them in his pocket, but they died that night. They 

 were very small and helpless, and were probably about two weeks old. 



In April of the same year one of the guides found another Bear in 

 her den in a swamp south of Fourth Lake, Pulton Chain. This den, 



* Forest and Stream, Vol. XIII, No. 4, Sept. 4, 1879, p. 605. 



