156 PMAI1UE AND FOREST. 



and numerous instances are on record of thirty, or even 

 forty, bears having in a couple of months fallen before one 

 hunter's rifle. The flesh, which is with justice much prized, 

 is either salted down or smoked for future use ; while the 

 pelt furnishes a bed, or is sold to the traders, ultimately to 

 be made into rugs for sleighs, or the coarser kinds of furs 

 for women and children. 



The different sizes that black bears, attain in various sec- 

 tions of the country are somewhat remarkable ; so much so 

 that I have often been induced to believe them entitled to 

 be considered different species; but otherwise they are so 

 similar in habits of life, choice of food, and residence, that 

 it would only be opening a path that might lead to innu- 

 merable intricacies without the probability of resulting in 

 benefit. The black bear of Michigan, Wisconsin, and the 

 regions bordering on these States, never exceeds two hun- 

 dred and fifty pounds these are generally denominated 

 hog bear; but when you descend the Mississippi and get 

 into the canebrakes of Arkansas, numbers are annually 

 killed that reach four hundred-weight. Coming eastward, 

 you find a still larger animal ; and I have heard from un- 

 doubted sources that in the State of Maine, and along the 

 edges of New Brunswick, bears have been known to attain 

 six or even seven hundred pounds' weight. Doubtless these 

 differences are occasioned by varieties or abundance of food 

 that the different regions produce,- not temperature or cli- 

 mate, as Wisconsin and Maine are almost in the same lat- 

 itude. 



Without further preamble, I will attempt a description. 

 The black bear is short in carcass, with an unusually bag- 

 gy, slack look ; the legs are long and powerful in their sweep, 

 and the animal can handle them with the skill and profi- 

 ciency of a professed pugilist; the head is very nearly an 

 equilateral triangle, with the nose for an apex ; the ears are 



