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and the Musquaw of the Greet). whose general proportions 

 are smaller than those of L'mu Arctut, The head of the 

 American black bear is narrower, the can more distant, and 

 the muzzle more prominent, and it wants the depression 

 above the eye*. The fur is composed of soft smooth hairs, 

 which are of a glossy black for the greater part of their 

 length, instead of possessing the shaggy and woolly charac- 

 ter of the comparatively grizzled ftir of the brown bear, ex- 

 cept on the muzzle, which is cluthed with short thickset 

 hairs, brown on the upper port and paler on the side. The 

 tail is apparently more prominent, and the sharper and more 

 curved claws are nearly hidden in the hair. 



4 The Mack bear,' says Dr. Richardson, ' inhabits every 

 wooded district of the American continent from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, and from Carolina to the shores of the Arctic 

 Sea.' A friend informs us that it still occurs, though not 

 very often, in the Blue Ridge, in Virginia. Other authori- 

 ties place its southern boundary at the Isthmus of Panama. 

 Man has, however, gradually driven it from its haunts to 

 pake way for his works, and has compelled it to take refuge 

 in the mountains and (he immense inland forests. In Ca- 

 nada it is still abundant, and it is tolerably numerous on 

 the western coast as far as California. Dr. Richardson 

 gives the following interesting account of this species : 



' The block bear is smaller than the other American bears 

 which we have to describe, the total length of an adult 

 seldom exceeding five feet. Its favourite food appears to be 

 berries of vat bus kinds, but when these are not to be pro- 

 cured it preys upon roots, insects, fish, eggs, and such birds 

 or quadrupeds as it can surprise. It does not eat animal 

 food from choice ; for when it has abundance of its favourite 

 vegetable diet, it will pass the carcass of a deer without 

 touching it. It is rather a timid animal, and will seldom 

 face a man unless it is wounded, or has its retreat cut oil', 

 or is urged by affection to defend its young. In such coses 

 its strength renders it a dangerous assailant. I have known 

 the female confront her enemy boldly until she had seen 

 her cubs attain the upper branches of a tree, when she made 

 oH, evidently considering them to be iu safety, but in fact 

 li aving them an easy prey to the hunter. The speed of the 

 black bear when in pursuit is said not to be very great, and 

 I have been told that a man may escape from it, particu- 

 larly if he runs into a willow grove or amongst loose gross : 

 for the caution of the bear obliges it to stop frequently, and 

 rise on its hind legs for the purpose of reconnoitring. I 

 have, however, seen a black bear make off with a speed that 

 would have battled the fleetest runner, and ascend a nearly 

 perpendicular cliff with a facility that a oat might envy. 

 This bear, when resident in the fur countries, almost inva- 

 riably hibernates, and about 1000 skins are annually pro- 

 cured by the Hudson's Bay Company, frcm black bears 

 destroyed in their winter retreats. It generally selects a 

 spot for its den under a fallen tree, and, having scratched 

 away a portion of the soil, retires to it at the commencement 

 of a snow-storm, when the snow soon furnishe.-i it. with a 

 close, warm covering. Its breath makes a small opening 

 in the den, and the quantity of hoar frost which occasionally 

 gathers round the aperture serves to betray its retreat to the 

 hunter. In more southern districts, where the timber is of 

 a larger size, bears often shelter themselves in hollow trees. 

 The Indians remark that a bear never retires to its den for 

 the winter until it has acquired a thick coat of fat ; and it 

 is remarkable that when it comes abroad in the spring it is 

 equally fat, though in a few days thereafter it becomes very- 

 lean. The period of the retreat of the bean is generally 

 about the time when the snow begins to lie on thu pound, 

 *n<l they do not come abroad again until the greater parl of 

 the snow is gone. At both th*-,' periods they can procure 

 many kinds of berries in considerable abundance. In lati- 

 tude 65 their winter repose lasts from the beginning of 

 October to the first or second week of May ; but on the 

 northern shores of Lake Huron the period is from two to 

 three months shorter. In very severe winters great numbers 

 of bean have been observed to enter the United Stati - ir..m 

 the northward. On these occasions they were very lc:m, 

 and almost all males : the few females which accompanied 

 them were not with young. The remark of the i 

 above-mentioned, that the fat bears alone Inherit' 

 phinsthe <!:cse migration*. The black Wars in 



the north' -i . wlit-n they aic 



in gfxxl condition from feeding on the berries then in ma- 

 turity. The females retire at once b> their dens, and c 

 themselves so carefully, that even the lyncean eye uf un 



Indian hunter very rarely detects them ; but the males, ex- 

 hausted by the pursuit ;.iles, require ten c r I 

 days to recover their i \n unusually early winter 

 wiil.it is evident, operate i , the males, by 



:.ting them from fattening a second time : ' 

 migration ut such times to in. .re -out hern districts. It is 

 not, however, true that the black bean generally abandon 

 the northern districts on the approach of winter, as ha> 

 asserted, the quantity of bear skins procured during that 

 season in all parts of the fur countries being a sullicieiit 

 proof to the contrary. The females bring forth about i; 

 middle of January ; and it is probable that the period oi 

 their gestation is about fifteen or sixteen weeks, but I be 

 it has not been precisely ascertained. The number of cubs 

 varies from one to five, probably w ith the age of the mother, 

 and they begin to bear long before they attain their full 

 size.' 



It will be observed that .he period of gestation attributed 

 to the brown bear is seven months. Cuvier says thai 

 couple in June, and produce their young in January. 

 I. en weeks is the probable time allotted to the American 

 black bear for the same purpose by Dr. Richardson, who had 

 the best opportunities of collecting evidence on the subject 

 The bears kept in the fosse at Berne furnished the pr 

 gestation for seven months; but it is so char: 

 the family for the females to conceal themselves, that, in a 

 state of nature, little evidence to bo depended u]x>n for its 

 accuracy can be obtained. ' No man,' according to Brickell, 

 'either Christian or Indian, ever killed . with 



young;' and Dr. Richardson's numerous inquiries ;u 

 the Indians of Hudson's Bay ended in the di-c.nrry of only- 

 one hunter who had killed a pregnant bear. The same ob- 

 servation was long ago made by Aristotle, for h 

 chap. XXX. book vi., Kvovaav ft apurov tpyov tart X 

 ' it is difficult to capture a pregnant bear;' and ayain, in 

 chap. xvii. book viii., Kvovaa fl'iJprroc, >"; iVoMiric, i"i TOW 

 in' oXrywi' tlXijvrai, ' but a pregnant bear has never been 

 taken by anybody, or at least by very few ; ' and this ac- 

 counts for his own error, for he makes the period of gesta- 

 tion only thirty days. Mr. Lloyd, in his 1'irlil -Xjmrtt o/ 

 the North of "Europe, states that lie was present at the 

 death and dissection of one (Ursus Arctos) which had a cub 

 in her womb, she having previously produced three, and he 

 relates other instances, but they are very rare. 



Upon the whole, though the American black bear may be 

 considered a well-defined species, distinct from the brown 

 bear (Ursui Arctos), it is not very probable that, in two 

 species so nearly allied, the period of gestation should be 

 only sixteen weeks in the one instance, while it is seven 

 months in the other. Cuvier says that the American 

 black bears produced young in the Paris menagerie : the 

 young were of a uniform bright ash colour, and without a 

 collar. 



The value attached to the skin of the black bear, a value 

 very much decreased, for the skin that once fetched from 

 twenty to forty guineas is now hardly worth more than from 

 twenty to sixty shillings*, and the high esteem in which 

 the Indians held their flesh, caused great havock among 

 them. The importation into England in 1783 amount 

 10,!)(IO skins, and a-cended gradually to 25,000 in 1803, 

 since which time there has been a considerable decline. 

 That an animal from which the wild Indian derived so ; 

 benefit, an animal, moreover, particularly to be dreaded in 

 the perilous hour of the chase, and when encountered un- 

 ex|K'ctedly, should be the subject of much attention, or the 

 parent of particular customs, and the object of great 

 stitious regard, w:is to be expected. Accordingly we find 

 that, as the New Hollanders have their kangaroo dance and 

 dog dance, the Indians had their bear dance. 



The limits of a work of this nature will not permit us to 

 KO at large into the subject of bear hunting, and the 

 in.uues wbich accompanied it among the different I 

 but, as it may I 



011 the :nt (.t':in rye-witness, who 



\isitcd the fur countries so. .11 after Canada had yielded in 

 (irr;it Britain. Alexander Henry thus writes in his 

 rrA. whil.-t at AVawatam's wintering ground near Lake 

 Michigan : 



' In the course of the month of January I happened (> 



. that the trunk of a very large (line-tree was much 



torn by the claws of a bear, made both in going up and 



Tl..- i. -tail |.rlrr of an Am<-ri,an bUrk lxr'i ikin in London, at prewnt 

 (ipnnc of 1839), ii from wo to three troiiwu. 



