106 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



are found hroughout the territories of the United States, in th* 

 wooded ard mountainous regions, and in unsettled districts. Their 

 skins are of great use to the inhabitants as a substitute for 

 manufactured woollens, such as blankets, &c. 



Under ordinary circumstances the black bear is not remarkable 

 for its ferocity, nor is it in the habit of attacking man without 

 being provoked. When wounded, he turns on his enemy with 

 prodigious energy and defends himself daringly. During the 

 coupling season, this disposition is more fully shown, as the males 

 are then more exsited, and are consequently Jess lazy and clumsy 

 than they are in the autumn. If this bear is taken when young, 

 it is easily domesticated, and taught many tricks ; he is frequently 

 to be seen exhibited by showmen as a " learned" bear. 



In the northern part of the American continent, the subter- 

 raneous retreats of the black bear may be easily discovered by 

 the mist which uniformly hangs about the entrance of the den, 

 as the animal's heat and breathing prevent the mouth of the cave 

 from being entirely closed, however deep the snow may be. As 

 the black bear usually retires to his winter quarters before any 

 quantity of snow has fallen, and does not again venture abroad till 

 the end of March or the beginning of April, he therefore spends 

 at least four months in a state of torpidity, arid without obtaining 

 food. It is therefore not very surprising, though the bear goes 

 into his winter quarters excessively fat, that he should come forth 

 in the spring a melancholy picture of emaciation. 



The black bear is sometimes destroyed by blocking up the 

 mouth of the cave with logs of wood, and then suddenly break- 

 ing open the top of it, they kill the animal with a spear or gun; 

 this method is, however, considered both cowardly and wanton, a? 

 the bear can neither escape nor offer the slightest injury to his 

 merciless destroyers. The northern Indians display great in- 

 genuity in the manner in which they throw the noose around the 

 neck of this animal, but the barbarous way in which they 

 despatch him with the hatchet or tomahawk, after having drawn 

 bim to the top of his hole has little in it to admire. 



Sometimes he is caugh* \n traps, strong steel ones chained to 



