308 WILD SPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



cle under consideration to his mouth, turn his head on 

 one side, and try to crack it with his teeth. The inde- 

 scribable air of burlesque gravity with which this was 

 done made me laugh. Added to the individual awkward- 

 ness of the animal was the fact of our unsuspected obser- 

 vation, and the scene appeared doubly ridiculous ; and 

 when the negroes chuckled aloud, the bear would only 

 discontinue his investigations for a moment to take a sur- 

 vey, and then renew them again. The cocoanut he found 

 too hard to bite, and so, after rolling it over two or three 

 times, threw it into the sea again. Then he examined a 

 large tortoise-shell, and putting his claws in the side, with 

 his arms a-kuubo,.pryed it open, to find it empty. Next 

 he picked up an orange, and sitting down, as before, ate it 

 with evident satisfaction, his fore paws resting durmg the 

 time of his mastication on the toes of his hmd paws. 

 Occasionally he would reach around and scratch himself 

 in the same manner as a negro, whom he laughably resem- 

 bled in very many of his manners. 



Presently he discovered a small cask, and after apply- 

 ing his nose to the bunghole to scent the character of its 

 contents set to work to arrive at the interior. But 

 the half-barrel was strongly coopered, and in spite of 

 bites, and boxes, and hugs without number, it remained 

 intact, though an oily juice ran from the bunghole and 

 smeared Bruin's paws, who eagerly licked them dry. 

 At length, by a good deal of biting, he enlarged the 

 bunghole so that he could get a paw in, and by this 

 means fished out the sweets, holding the cask up with 



