THE BLACK BEAR. 283 
tribes, who make various articles of clothing 
out of its skin, and use its soft, woolly hair for 
their rude fabrics. 
THE BLACK BEAR. 
Tuer black bear, however clumsy in appear- 
ance, is active, vigilant, and persevering, pos- 
sesses great strength, courage, and address, 
and undergoes with little injury the greatest 
fatigues and hardships in avoiding the pursuit 
of the hunter. Like the deer it changes its 
haunts with the seasons, and for the same rea- 
son, viz., the desire of obtaining suitable food, or 
of retiring to the more inaccessible parts, where 
it can pass the time in security, unobserved by 
man, the most dangerous of its enemies. 
During the spring months it searches for food 
in the low rich alluvial lands that border the 
rivers, or by the margins of such inland lakes as, 
on account of their small size, are called by us 
ponds. There it procures abundance of suc- 
culent roots and tender juicy plants, upon which 
it chiefly feeds at that season. During the sum- 
mer heat, it enters the gloomy swamps, passes 
coach of its time in wallowing in the mud like a 
hog, and contents itself with crayfish, roots, and 
nettles, now and then seizing on a pig. or per 
