CHAPTER XIII. 



THE BLACK BEAR. 



NEXT to the whitetail deer the black bear is the 

 commonest and most widely distributed of 

 American big game. It is still found quite plen- 

 tifully in northern New England, in the Adirondacks, 

 Catskills, and along the entire length of the Alleghanies, 

 as well as in the swamps and canebrakes of the southern 

 States. It is also common in the great forests of northern 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and throughout the 

 Rocky Mountains and the timbered ranges of the Pacific 

 coast. In the East it has always ranked second only to 

 the deer among the beasts of chase. The bear and the 

 buck were the staple objects of pursuit of all the old 

 hunters. They were more plentiful than the bison and 

 elk even in the long vanished days when these two great 

 monarchs of the forest still ranged eastward to Virginia 

 and Pennsylvania. The wolf and the cougar were always 

 too scarce and too shy to yield much profit to the hunter. 

 The black bear is a timid, cowardly animal, and usually 

 a vegetarian, though it sometimes preys on the sheep, hogs, 

 and even cattle of the settler, and is very fond of raiding 



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