THE BLACK BEAR. 155 



little cubs arc not much larger than a retriever puppy of the 

 same age. 



The musquaw finds great difficulty at first in satisfying 

 the cravings of his appetite. He searches for the cranberries 

 in the open bogs, and is driven even to eat the rank marshy 

 grass. As the snow disappears, he seeks for wood-lice and 

 other creatures in rotten trunks. Hungry as he is, he labours 

 very patiently for his food. The prehensile form of his lips 

 enables him to pick up with wonderful dexterity even, the 

 .smallest insect or berry. As the ice breaks up in the lakes, 

 he proceeds thither to fish for smelts and other small fish, 

 which he catches with wonderful dexterity with his paws, 

 throwing them out rapidly behind him. When, however, 

 pressed by hunger, and unable to obtain the smaller creatures 

 for food, he will attack young deer if he can take them by 

 surprise ; but as he can seldom do this, he is often tempted 

 into the neighbourhood of settlements. Here he lies in wait 

 for the cattle as they wander through the woods to their 

 spring pastures; and when once he has taken to this dangerous 

 proceeding, he is said to continue it. On catching sight of a 

 herd, should it not be accompanied by a human being, he 

 drives the animals into some boggy swamp, and there singling 

 out a victim, he jumps on its back, and deals it a few 

 tremendous blows across the head and shoulders, till the poor 

 animal becomes an easy prey. He then drags it off into the 

 neighbouring wood, and devours it at his leisure. This habit 

 is often the cause of his destruction. On any remainder of 

 the animal being found, the aggrieved settler sets off, rifle in 

 hand and axe in his belt, to punish the aggressor. The bear, 

 he well knows, will revisit the carcass. So cunning, however, 

 is Bruin, and conscious of guilt, that he is constantly on the 



