MAMMALIA—BEAR. 107 
again wounded the bear, and saved Mr D. from further peril. Neither re- 
ceived any injury from this encounter, in which the bear was at length killed. 
Mr Dougherty, the hunter before mentioned, relates the following in- 
stance of the great muscular strength of the grizzly bear :— Having ki led 
a bison, and left the carcass for the purpose of procuring assistance to skin 
and cut it up, he was very much surprised on his return to find that it had 
been dragged off, whole, to a considerable distance, by a grizzly bear, and 
had been placed in a pit, which the animal had dug with his claws for its 
reception. 
THE AMERICAN BLACK BEAR. 

Tuts animal is found in considerable numbers, in the northern districts 
of America. In size and form he approaches nearest to the brown bear; but 
his color is a uniform shining jet black, except on the muzzle, where it is 
fawn colored; on the lips and sides of the mouth it is almost gray. The 
hair, except on the muzzle, is long and straight, and is less shaggy than in 
most other species. The forehead has a slight elevation, and the muzzle is 
elongated, and somewhat flattened above. The young ones, however, are 
first of a bright ash color, which gradually changes into a deep brown, and 
ends by becoming a deep black. 
The American black bear lives a solitary life in forests and uncultivated 
deserts, and subsists on fruits, and on the young shoots and roots of vegeta- 
bles. Of honey he is exceedingly fond, and, as he is a most expert climber, 
he scales the loftiest trees in search of it. Fish, too, he delights in, and is 
often found in quest of them on the borders of lakes and on the sea-shore. 
—s 



1 Ursus Ameri anus, Des. 
