DESCRIPTION OF THE BLACK BEAR. 141 



much prized, is either salted down or smoked for 

 future use ; while the pelt furnishes a bed, or is sold to 

 the traders, ultimately to be made into rugs for sleighs 

 or the coarser kinds of furs for women and children. 



The different sizes that black bears attain in various 

 sections of the country are somewhat remarkable ; so 

 much so that I have often been induced to believe 

 them entitled to be considered different species, but 

 otherwise they are so similar in habits of life, choice 

 of food, and residence, that it would only be opening 

 a path that might lead to innumerable intricacies 

 without the probability of resulting in benefit. The 

 black bear of Michigan, Wisconsin, and the regions 

 bordering on these States, never exceeds two hundred 

 and fifty pounds these are generally denominated hog 

 bear ; but when you descend the Mississippi and get 

 into the cane-brakes of Arkansas, numbers are an- 

 nually killed that reach four hundredweight. Coming 

 eastward, you find a still larger animal; and I have 

 heard from undoubted sources that in the State of 

 Maine, and along the edges of New Brunswick, bears 

 have been known to attain six, or even seven hun- 

 dred pounds' weight. Doubtless these differences are 

 occasioned by varieties or abundance of food that the 

 different regions produce, not temperature or climate, 

 as Wisconsin and Maine are almost in the same 

 latitude. 



Without farther preamble, I will attempt a descrip- 

 tion. The black bear is short in carcass, with an 

 unusually baggy, slack look; the legs are long and 

 powerful in their sweep, and the animal can handle 

 them with the skill and proficiency of a professed 

 pugilist ; the head is very nearly an equilateral triangle, 



