THE MUSQUAW, OR AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 397 



Like my dog Rory, he was accustomed to indue a regulation cap and gown, and 

 under this learned shade to perambulate the college, and partake of the hospitality of 

 its members. He would sometimes repel with some asperity the familiarity with which 

 he was greeted by a strange dog, but was in general so quiet in his demeanor that he 

 caused no alarm among those who knew him, even when indulging in some strange 

 freak of humor. 



On one occasion he had been treated to sweetmeats at the house of a village dealer in 

 such commodities, and entertained so affectionate a reminiscence of the spot, that he 

 contrived to escape from bondage, and made at once for the coveted dainties. The 

 owner of the shop took to flight at his entrance, and when his pursuers entered the 

 shop they found Mr. Tig seated upon the counter, helping himself to brown sugar with 

 a liberal paw, and displaying such an appreciation of his good fortune that it was not 

 without much trouble that he was removed from the scene of his repast. He was 

 rather peculiar in his tastes, and had attained to a highly civilized state of, epicureanism, 

 for his chief delicacies were not, as might be supposed, the produce of the garden or 

 the field, but the more sophisticated dainties of hot muffins and cold ices. He was a 

 most social animal, and if left alone, even for a short time, would cry and lament in 

 the most pitiful of tones. 



This gregarious disposition was so excessively developed that when the poor animal 

 was abruptly deprived of his accustomed intercourse with human friends his health 

 speedily gave way under the horrors of solitude ; he refused to eat, ran continually 

 about his den, in the hope of making his escape and rejoining his collegiate acquaint- 

 ances, and was one day found lying dead in his cage. 



The fur of this Bear is rather valuable on account of its warmth and beauty, and the 

 fat and the gall are also held in much esteem for various purposes, chiefly medicinal. 



AMERICA furnishes several species of the Bear tribe, two of which, the Grizzly Bear 

 and the MUSQUAW, or BLACK BEAR, are the most conspicuous. 



The Black Bear is found in many parts of Northern America, and was formerly seen 

 in great plenty. But as the fur and the fat are articles of great commercial and social 

 value, the hunters have exercised their craft with such determination that the Black 

 Bears are sensibly diminishing in number. The fur of the Black Bear is not so roughly 

 shaggy as that of the European or the Syrian Bear, but is smooth and glossy in its 

 appearance, so that it presents a very handsome aspect to the eye, while its texture is 

 as thick and warm as that of its rougher-furred relations. 



This creature is but little given to animal food, and will restrict itself to a vegetable 

 diet unless pressed by hunger. It is, however, very fond of the little snails which come 

 up to feed on the sweet prairie-grass as soon as it is sufficiently moistened by showers or 

 dew to suit the locomotive capabilities of those wet-loving molluscs, and is ex- 

 tremely fond of honey, in search of which dainty it displays great acuteness and 

 perseverance. 



Few trees afford so unstable a footing that the Black Bear will not surmount them 

 in order to reach a nest of wild bees, and there are few obstacles which his ready claws and 

 teeth will not remove in order to enable him to reach the subjacent dainty. Even if 

 the honey and comb be deeply concealed in the hollow of a tree, and the entrance by 

 which the bees find ingress and egress to and from their habitation be too small for 

 the insertion of a paw, the Bear will set steadily to work with his teeth, and deliber- 

 ately gnaw his way through the solid wood until he has made a breach sufficiently 

 wide to answer his purpose. When once he has succeeded in bringing the combs to 

 light, he scrapes them together with his fore-paws, and devours comb, honey, and 

 young, without troubling himself about the stings of the surviving bees. 



The hunters, who are equally fond of honey, find that if it is eaten in too great 

 plenty it produces very unpleasant symptoms, which may be counteracted by mixing 

 it with the oil which they extract from the fat of the Bear. This custom of eating 

 mingled oil and honey affords a partial explanation of the prophecy, " Butter and 

 honey shall he eat," which was necessarily put forth in language which was in accord- 

 ance with the popular ideas of the period. 



