46 IGNORANCE AND INDIFFERENCE. 



faculties, and to commence a new existence. Men 

 of the greatest abilities call nothing insignificant 

 which the Lord has made : to borrow the eloquent 

 observation of a North American naturalist, they 

 can watch from day to day to catch the glance of 

 the small bird's wing, or listen to its song; the 

 world and everything in it looks bright to them, 

 when to others the bird is but a flying animal, and 

 grass and flowers only the covering of the sod. 



Proceed we now from the southern regions of 

 the American continent, to consider the Black 

 Bear, a formidable creature which inhabits the 

 recesses of the forests that cover a considerable 

 part of North America. There you may see him, 

 stern, rugged, and untamed, ranging those vast 

 regions in quest of his favourite viands, either fruits 

 and vegetables or small animals, or approaching 

 river banks to search for fish. When the streams 

 are frozen up, and snow lies thick upon the ground, 

 he intrudes on the neighbourhood of cultivated and 

 peopled regions, where he occasionally attacks large 

 animals, and even man himself. His movements on 

 the ground are extremely awkward, but he climbs 

 and swims with ease. In his excursions he usually 

 follows the same path, which becomes at length so 

 well beaten that Indian hunters trace him through the 

 mazes of the forest, and thus unkennel him in his 

 closest coverts. 



When the winter sets in with all its attendant hor- 

 rors, such bears as dwell far north in America, imme- 

 diately abandon their accustomed haunts, and hasten 

 to a less rigorous climate, where they remain till the 



