CHAPTER XI. 



BLACK BEAR. 



(Ursus Americanus.) 



NONE of the ferce natures are better known in a state of 

 captivity than the black bear. What village schoolboy, 

 however remote the hamlet in which he resides, cannot 

 remember poor Bruin being led round by some 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, idle 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 



