330 



BEAR. 



In this bear, the sight and hearing seem to be the 

 most acute of the senses as well as in the case of 

 many others of the genus. Although he kills many 

 small animals, he docs not follow them by the smell. 

 When walking his gait is heavy and awkward, and 

 when running is not much less so. He, however, in 

 consequence of his strength, moves with great celerity, 

 and sustains himself under the exertion for a long 

 time. 



The females bring forth their young in the winter, 

 and exhibit for them a degree of attachment which 

 cannot be surpassed. They generally have two cubs, 

 which they suckle till full grown. The affection 

 existing between the mother and her cubs, appears to 

 be mutual and unchanging. Indeed, this never- 

 varying regard shows the instinctive propensities of 

 the brute creation in a very remarkable degree, as 

 nothing short of absolute destruction can separate 

 the mother from the cub, or the cub from the mother. 



A friend of Dr. Godman's, while traversing a wood 

 near Fort Snelling, on the Missouri, saw a she-bear 

 with two cubs (about the size of puppies at a month 

 old) a short distance before him. The cubs imme- 

 diately ascended a tree, and the dam, raising herself 

 on her hind legs, sat erect at its foot in order to 

 protect them : the rifle, discharged with a fatal aim, 

 laid the parent lifeless on the earth. The hunter 

 then approached and stirred the body with the butt 

 of his gun, on which the little cubs hastily descended 

 the tree and attacked him with great earnestness, 

 attempting to bite his legs and feet, which their 

 youth and want of strength prevented them from 

 injuring. When he retired to a short distance, they 

 returned to the dead body of their dam, and by 

 various caresses and playful movements, endeavoured 

 to rouse her from that sleep " which knows no 

 waking." 



Black bears are still numerous in the wooded and 

 thinly settled parts of Pennsylvania, as well as in most 

 of the other states of the Union. Where their favourite 

 food is plenteous they grow to a vast size, and yield 

 a great quantity of oil. Barham says that he was 

 present at the cutting up of one which weighed five 

 or six hundred pounds, and his hide appeared as large 

 as that of an ox of six or seven hundred weight. 



The food of this animal is chiefly sweet fruits, 

 bramble and other berries ; it is also fond of the 

 acorns of the live oak, on which it grows very fat 

 in Florida and elsewhere. In procuring these acorns 

 they often place themselves in very perilous situa- 

 tions. In climbing the large oak trees, they push 

 themselves along the limbs towards the extreme 

 branches, and with their fore paws bend the twigs 

 within their reach, in doing which they often expose 

 themselves to fatal accidents. They also cat a variety 

 of nuts and esculent roots, and often make long excur- 

 sions in quest of whortle berries, mulberries, and all 

 finely flavoured and spicy fruits. Birds, small qua- 

 drupeds, eggs, and insects, are greedily devoured by 

 them whenever they can be obtained. The frontier 

 settlers do not like them at all, as by their incursions 

 in quest of young corn and potatoes, they often com- 

 mit great devastation ; their claws enabling them to 

 dig up a great number of potatoes in a very short 

 time ; and where the bears arc numerous the damage 

 tlicy commit is very extensive. 



In the north, the flesh of the black bear is con- 

 sidered in high perfection after the middle of July, 

 when the berries begin to ripen, though some berries 



impart a very disagreeable flavour to their flesh 

 They continue to be in good condition till January 

 or February ; later in the spring they arc much 

 wasted, and their flesh is sapless and disagreeable ; 

 probably in consequence of their long fasting through 

 the season of their torpidity. Their flesh is also 

 rendered rank and unpalatable by feeding on her- 

 ring spawn, which they devour with the utmost 

 greediness. At all seasons of the year, the southern 

 Indians kill great numbers of these bears, but no 

 inducement will prevent them from singeing the hair 

 off of all that arc in good condition for eating, the 

 flesh of the bear being as much spoiled by skinning 

 it as pork is. The skins, therefore, that these people 

 dispose of to the traders, are those of bears that are 

 too poor for being eaten. 



The black bear in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay 

 has been observed, in the month of .Time, to feed 

 entirely on water insects when the berries are not 

 ripe. These insects, of different species, are found 

 in immense quantities in some of the lakes, where 

 they are driven by gales of wind in the bay, and 

 being pressed together in vast multitudes, they die. 

 The odour which arises from this mass of putrefac- 

 tion is intolerable. In some places they lie two or 

 throe feet deep. The manner in which they catch 

 these insects is by swimming with their mouth open, 

 and thus gather the insects on the surface of the 

 water: when the stomach of the animal is opened at 

 this season, it is found to be filled with them, and 

 emits a very disagreeable odour. They are said to 

 feed on those which die and are washed on shore. 

 The flesh of the animal must be much spoiled by this 

 diet, as individuals killed at a distance from the water 

 are well flavoured at the same time of year. 



The black bear is in fact very indiscriminate in his 

 feeding, and though suited by nature for the almost 

 exclusive consumption of vegetable food, yet when 

 pressed by hunger, he refuses scarcely any thing. He 

 is voracious as well as indiscriminate, in satisfying his 

 appetite, and frequently devours so much, that his 

 stomach loathes and rejects it. He seeks, with great 

 assiduity, for the larvae or grub-worms of various 

 insects, and exerts a surprising degree of strength in 

 turning over large trunks of fallen trees, which, if suffi- 

 ciently decayed, he tears to pieces in search of worms. 



During the season when the logger-head turtles 

 land in vast multitudes from the lagoons at the south, 

 for the purpose of depositing their eggs, the black 

 bears come in great numbers, and dig them out of the 

 sand with so much expedition, that the turtles have 

 scarcely turned their backs when the bears have 

 feasted to excess upon their eggs. 



West of the Missouri, the black bears are observed 

 to feed most commonly on grapes, plums, dog-wood 

 berries, and other fruits that lie in their way, and 

 they are frequently to be seen contending with the 

 wolves and the buzzards for pre-eminence in feasting 

 on carcasses that have died by disease, or have been 

 abandoned by the hunters. When the bear seizes 

 A living animal, he does not put it to death, but, 

 regardless of its struggles and its screams, he tears it 

 piecemeal, and, disdaining its torture, eats it while the 

 flesh is quivering with convulsive agony. 



It has been asserted that the black bear is not a 

 " flesh-cater." But this is not the fact, as this bear is 

 well known to feed on flesh, even to the rejection of 

 fruits. When pressed by extreme hunger, they will 

 even kill pork for their own use. 



