INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 



The bear is the most human of all the 

 beasts. He is not the most man-like in an- 

 atomy, nor the nearest in the line of evolu- 

 tion. The likeness is rather in his temper 

 and way of doing things and in the vicissi- 

 tudes of his life. He is a savage, of course, 

 but most men are that wild members of a 

 wild fauna and, like wild men, the bear 

 is a clumsy, good-natured blunderer, eating 

 with his fingers in default of a knife, and 

 preferring any day a mouthful of berries 

 to the excitement of a fight. 



In this book Joaquin Miller has tried to 

 show us the bear as he is, not the traditional 

 bear of the story-books. In season and out 

 of season, the bear has been represented al- 

 ways the same bear, "as much alike as so 

 many English noblemen in evening dress," 

 and always as a bloody bear. 



Mr. Miller insists that there are bears 

 and bears, as unlike one another in nature 

 and action as so many horses, hogs or goats. 

 This much they have in common bears are 



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