520 HISTORY OF 



precipices of uiiumamted mountains, it cnooses its uen m the 

 most gloomy parts of the forest, in some cavern that has been 

 hollowed by time, or in the hollow of some old enormous tree. 

 There it retires alone, and passes some months of the winter 

 \\ ithout provisions, or without ever stirring abroad. However, 

 this animal is not entirely deprived of sensation, like the bat or 

 the dormouse, but seems rather to subsist upon the exuberance 

 of its former flesh, and only feels the calls of appetite, when the 

 fat it had acquired in summer begins to be entirely wasted away. 

 In this manner, when the bear retires to its den, to hide for the 

 winter, it is extremely fat ; but at the end of forty or fifty days, 

 when it comes forth to seek for fresh nourishment, it seems to 

 have slept all its flesh away. It is a common report, that during 

 this time they live by sucking their paws, which is a vulgar error 

 that scarcely requires confutation. These solitary animals cou- 

 ple in autumn, but the time of gestation with the female is still 

 unknown :* the female takes great care to provide a proper re- 

 treat for her young ; she secures them in the hollow of a rock, 

 and provides a bed of hay in the warmest part of lier den ; she 

 brings forth in winter, and the young ones begin to follow h£r in 

 spring. The male and female by no means inhabit the same 

 den ; they have each their separate retreat, and seldom are seen 

 together but upon the accesses of genial desire.f 



* The bear is grarid 112 days. 



t The Black Bear of America is distiiig'uishcd from his fellows, and more 

 especially from the brown bear of Europe, which he approaches most nearly 

 in size and form, by few very striking- external differences, except the colour 

 of his fur. His forehead has a slight elevation ; his muzzle is elongated, and 

 somewhat flattened above ; and liis hair, though long and straight, has less 

 shag-gincss than that of most of the other species of the group. In colour it 

 is of a uniform sliining jet black, except on the muzzle, where it is short 

 and fawn-coloured, becoming almost gray on the lips aud sides of themoutli. 

 This, however, it should be observed, is the character only of the full-grown 

 animal : the young are first of a bright ash colour, which gradually change* 

 to a deep brown, and finally fixes in the glossy black tint of mature age. 



The habits and maimers of the Black Bear resemble those of the brown 

 almost as closely as his physical characters. In a state of nature he seeks 

 the recesses of the forest, and passes his solitary life in wild and uncultivated 

 deserts, far from the society of man, and avoiding even that of the animal 

 creation. His usual food consists of the young shoots of vegetables, of their 

 roots, which he digs up with his strong and arcuated claws, and of their 

 fruits, which he obtiuns by means of the facility with which the same organs 

 enable him to climb the loftiest trees. He possesses indeed the faculty of 

 clijnbiug in a most extraordinary degree, and frequently exercises it in the 



