62 The Black Bear. 



the bait is attached to the other end of the cord it hangs over the 

 muzzle of the gun, and the least pull on the bait discharges the gun, 

 which is protected from the weather by a screen of bark. The ordi- 

 nary dead-fall consists of a number of stout poles driven in the 

 ground in the form of a U. In front of the opening is placed a 

 heavy log. The bait is suspended from a string within the inclos- 

 ure so that it will be necessary for the bear to place his fore legs 

 over the log in order to reach it. The string has connection with a 

 piece of wood which props up the dead-fall, consisting of a heavy log 

 of beech or birch timber weighted with other logs. When the bear 

 pulls at the bait, the prop is drawn from under the heavy timber, 

 which falls across his back. It sometimes happens that the hunter, 

 to his discomfort, finds that his dead-fall has proved fatal to one of 

 his own or his neighbor's cattle. 



In the autumn, bear-hunters take advantage of Bruin's known 

 partiality for raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, and set traps 

 and dead-falls in the approaches to the patches. He also frequents 

 the beech- forests, and his expertness as a climber enables him to 

 obtain the rich mast, on which he grows corpulent. In the spring, 

 when he first comes from his win- 

 ter quarters, he feasts upon the 

 ants and grubs he discovers by 

 industrious digging, or by turn- 

 ing over decayed logs. Later in 

 the season, when the herrings 

 and alewives run up the streams 

 to spawn, Bruin turns fisherman, 

 and captures the fish by inter- 

 cepting them as they pass over 

 shallow places, and scooping them out with his paws. His taste for 

 pork and molasses and such delicacies often encourages him to visit 

 the camps of lumbermen, where he sometimes makes sad havoc. 



If captured when very young and carefully trained, the black bear 

 becomes tame, but I doubt if he ought to be trusted as a pet. My 

 own efforts to tame young bears have not always proved successful. 

 It is unpleasant, on returning from a journey, to find your house sur- 

 rounded by the neighbors armed with old muskets and pitchforks, 

 the windows broken, the gardens trodden down, your family impris- 



