THE BLACK BEAR. 255 



Only once in my experience in Bear-hunting, in the 

 West, did I witness a mating of Bears. This occurred on 

 Cypress Creek, in Arkansas, in the month of July. While 

 out watching for an Otter in the creek, my attention was 

 attracted, by growling, to a part of the creek bottom where 

 the woods were thick, with many large beech-trees fring- 

 ing the banks of the creek. I recognized the noise, and 

 silently made my way to the place whence it came. The 

 sun was just rising. I discovered four large Bears, and one 

 not so large, which I knew to be a female. The four males 

 were growling, knocking one another with their paws, while 

 the female stood a few steps away, as unconcerned as it is 

 possible to imagine, yet slyly taking in, with one eye askant, 

 the maneuvers of the males. For several minutes, I saw the 

 males testing their strength and ability by rearing as high 

 as their fore paws could reach on the body of a gigantic 

 beech, and then making long and deep scratches upon it. 

 Each in turn would do. this. As soon as one made the trial, 

 he would scratch back with his hind' feet, just as dogs do 

 when meeting another strange dog. The female commenced 

 ambling off, satisfied, as I supposed, which one was the 

 superior, and to which she would transfer her love. 



Though it was not the season to kill a Bear, yet the very 

 black, glossy appearance of the largest male made me envy 

 his fleece. I wanted it for a rug in my bachelor home. 

 Before this old fellow could get out of sight, a well-directed 

 shot from my double-barrel rifle dropped him dead in his 

 tracks. The skin I kept for several years, until the moths 

 destroyed it. 



I have learned from experienced Bear-hunters that they 

 have often found cypress-trees in sloughs with deep 

 scratches, made by male Bears in the mating-season, after 

 gnawing the tree with their teeth. A famous Bear-hunter, 

 now living near me, informed me that on the Neenock Lakes 

 of Bossier Parish, around which in former times was an 

 almost impenetrable cane-brake, he saw a cypress-tree that 

 had been gnawed so much by Bears as eventually to kill 

 the tree. He informed me that the Coddo Indians told him 



