The Black Bear. 263 



and by preference the tender shoots of green grass 

 and other herbs, or frogs and crayfish ; it is not for a 

 week or two that they seem to be overcome by lean, 

 ravenous hunger. They will even attack and master 

 that formidable fighter the moose, springing at it from 

 an ambush as it passes for a bull moose would surely 

 be an overmatch for one of them if fronted fairly in 

 the open. An old hunter, whom I could trust, told 

 me that he had seen in the snow in early spring the 

 place where a bear had sprung at two moose, which were 

 trotting together ; he missed his spring, and the moose 

 got off, their strides after they settled down into their 

 pace being tremendous, and showing how thoroughly 

 they were frightened. Another time he saw a bear chase 

 a moose into a lake, where it waded out a little distance, 

 and then turned to bay, bidding defiance to his pursuer, 

 the latter not daring to approach in the water. I have 

 been told but cannot vouch for it that instances have 

 been known where the bear, maddened by hunger, has 

 gone in on a moose thus standing at bay, only to be 

 beaten down under the water by the terrible fore-hoofs of 

 the quarry, and to yield its life in the contest. A lumber- 

 man told me that he once saw a moose, evidently much 

 startled, trot through a swamp, and immediately afterwards 

 a bear came up following the tracks. He almost ran into 

 the man, and was evidently not in a good temper, for he 

 growled and blustered, and two or three times made feints 

 of charging, before he finally concluded to go off. 



Bears will occasionally visit hunters' or lumbermen's 

 camps, in the absence of the owners, and play sad havoc 



