jtUebearthibe. 87 



th&R six luohes. He is, accordingly, admirably adapted for digging 

 up the ground, but iff unable to climb trees, in which latter respect 

 he differs wholly from every other species. The color of his hair 

 varies to almost an indefinite extent, between all the intermediate 

 shades of a light gray and a black brown ; the latter tinge, how- 

 ever, being that which predominates. It is always in some degree 

 grizzled, by intermixture of grayish hairs, only the brown hairs 

 being tipped with gray. The hair itself is, in general, longer, 

 finer, and more exuberant than that of the Black Bear. 



The neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains is one of the 

 principal haunts of this animal. There, amidst wooded plains, 

 and tangled copses of bough and underwood, he reigns as much 

 the monarch as the lion is of the sandy wastes of Africa. Even 

 the bison cannot withstand his attack. Such is his muscular 

 strength that he will drag the ponderous carcass of the animal to 

 a convenient spot, where he digs a pit for its reception. The 

 Indians regard him with the utmost terror. His extrepae tenacity 

 of life renders him still more dangerous ; for he can endure re- 

 peated wounds which would be instantaneously mortal to other 

 beasts, and, in that state, can rapidly pursue his eneiny j so that 

 the hunter who fails to shoot him through the brain, is placed in 

 a most perilous situation. 



The Brown Bear is not only & savage, but a solitary 

 animal ; he takes refuge in the most unfrequented places, and the 

 most dangerous precipices of uninhabited mountains. He chooses 

 his den in the most gloomy parts of the forest, in some cavern that 

 has been hollowed by time, or in the hoUpw of some old enormous 

 tree. Thither he retires alone, and passes a part of the winter 

 without provisions, or without ever stirring abroad. He is not, 

 however, entirely deprived of sensation, like the dormouse or the 

 marmot, but seems rather to subsist upon the exuberance of his 

 former flesh, and only feels the calls of appetite when the fat he 

 had acquired in summer begins to be considerably wasted. 



When this happens, which we are told it generally does at 

 the expiration of forty or fifty days, the male forsakes his den ; 

 but th" female remains confined for four months : by which time 



