ies GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 369 
i furnished me with the length of eleven American grizzly skins 
in his warehouse at one time—87, 89, 90, 93, 94, 95; 96, 97; 
98, tor and 103 ins. respectively. On the day these parti- 
__culars were furnished I myself put the tape over a grizzly skin 
in Sir George Lampson’s possession which measured 9 ft. from 
the eyes to the tail. 
Ill. BLACK BEAR (Ursus americanus) 
I have said so much incidentally about the black bear 
while writing of his congener the grizzly, that I have very little 
left to say of him in the proper place. A recent American 
authority describes this bear’s habitat as being confined now- 
adays ‘to some portions of the various ranges of mountains 
south of the St. Lawrence river, the Great Lakes, and (east ot 
_ the Mississippi river) to parts of those portions of the Mis- 
_ sissippi river and its tributaries which are yet unsettled,’ and 
_ to ‘the dense thickets of the Colorado, Trinity, and Brayos 
_ rivers.’ Colonel G. D. Alexander should have bethought him 
__ of those countries west of the Rockies (Alaska, British Columbia, 
_ Washington Territory, Vancouver Island, and Oregon) which 
are at present the principal stronghold of Ursus americanus ; 
and as I am informed the chief source from which the fur-traders 
draw their supplies of black bear skins. Unfortunately for 
the black bear, the price of his hide has gone up lately in the 
fur market. Ten years ago $15 was a long price to pay for 
a bear's skin ; this year a trader out here paid as much as $35 
for one. Whatever the ultimate result of this rise in value may 
be, the immediate consequence of it has been to show the 
world what a vast number of bears can be killed in America 
if they are wanted. 
Here are some statistics of recent crops of bear in America 
ich speak for themselves. 
_ The Hudson Bay Company, of course, draws a// its supply 
hides from this continent, and I am assured that the same 
y be said (with scarcely any allowance for Russian, Norwegian, 
IL. BB 
