The Musquaw, or Black Bear 



Ursus Americanus 

 By John C. French, Roulette, Potter County 



SECTION I 



"There are beasts in these mountains 

 More hard to ensnare, 

 And more dangerous, too, 

 Than the wolf or the bear." 



No; we do not mean the "moonshiners" plying 

 their "inalienable" avocation; but only the degenerate 

 cur dogs that have learned to kill sheep. Mendel's 

 law of descent illustrates the atavistic principles that 

 govern the primogenature of beings produced from 

 cross-breeding and unregulated in-breeding of all 

 domestic "animals. 



The dog has developed from being a near-cousin 

 to the wolf, and has become the reliable protector of 

 man and guardian of our treasured flocks and herds. 

 But many curs, pressed by the pangs of hunger, lack 

 stamina and character to long resist the wolfiish inher- 

 itance, which is, "slay and eat". Therefore, the cur 

 dog kills our sheep, in his lust for blood his inherit- 

 ance since the creation of the world. 



The gray wolf is extinct in Pennsylvania ; for many 

 years he was the alibi for outlaw dogs. The black 

 bear now serves as the alibi for the destructive dogs, 

 in a vast number of instances. 



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