140 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



half-washed, uncombed foreigner, or his forming a 

 portion of the attractions which drew the gaping crowd 

 to enter the strong-smelling precincts of the annually- 

 visiting erratic menagerie ? Alas ! hard is the poor 

 bear's life when he is thus a prisoner. In summer he 

 is kept on half- diet, and shut up in a miserable den ; 

 in winter he is stowed away in a cellar, and possibly, 

 at least once a week, baited with curs, that the black- 

 guard owner may raise enough funds to carry on his 

 vagrant life. How different this from the life the 

 bear enjoyed in his native woods, wandering about at 

 pleasure, enjoying every luxury of nature that the 

 seasons produce; and, if in a country subject to a 

 severe winter, quietly sleeping through that portion 

 of the year when the winds, loaded with frost and 

 snow, whistle round his snug retreat ! The black bear 

 at one period was very widely distributed over the 

 North American continent. Its range now, on account 

 of the advance and increase of population, has been 

 much restricted ; still, wherever there are large tracks 

 of uncultivated ground, representatives of this species 

 will be found, whether in Canada or Labrador, Florida, 

 Georgia, or the Far West until J T OU reach the Rocky 

 Mountains, beyond which I have never heard of the 

 black bear being seen, the cinnamon bear and the 

 grizzly bear there supplying his place. So numerous 

 still are the black bears in some parts of Arkansas that 

 a portion of each year is set aside by the squatters and 

 farmers for their capture, and large packs of curs, 

 specially trained to assist, are kept for this purpose ; 

 and numerous instances are on record of thirty, or even 

 forty, bears having in a couple of months fallen before 

 one hunter's rifle. The flesh, which is with justice 



