i 5 o THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



a large, half-rotten stump, eating ants and grubs. 

 Every few seconds he reached out with right fore 

 paw and ripped loose a chunk of the stump, and 

 then licked it with his tongue. Three or four 

 times he dug into the torn stump with his right 

 paw and picked up something which he put in his 

 mouth. He was an interesting sight, somewhat 

 like a great puppy. His eating with one paw and 

 being right-handed most impressed me. 



In the midst of his eating he scented me, stood 

 on his hind legs, looked calmly in my direction for 

 three or four seconds, and then lumbered off 

 through the woods, stopping only once to look 

 back. After a short while I followed his trail. 

 Where he had crossed a brook he left a track in the 

 mud that looked very much like the track of a 

 bare-footed man. 



One day I saw him in a wild raspberry patch, 

 biting off the tops of the vines, and eating vines, 

 thorns, leaves, and berries. That afternoon I 

 saw him catching mice in the edge of a grassy place 

 close to a beaver pond. Most bears live upon 

 berries, roots, grass, grasshoppers, mice, and other 

 small animals. Consuming so many pests and 

 dead animals, their food habits make them useful 

 to man. Rarely does a bear kill a big animal, 

 wild or tame. They never eat human flesh. 



I raised two lively grizzlies. These were caught 

 in the near-by woods when tiny cubs, each about 

 the size of a rabbit. They were playful and 



