156 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
and nuimerous instances are on record of thirty, or even 
forty, bears having in a couple of months fallen before one 
hunter’s rifle. The flesh, which is with justice much prized, 
is either salted down or smoked for future use; while the 
pelt furnishes a bed, or is sold to the traders, ultimately to 
be made into rugs for sleighs, or the coarser kinds of furs 
for women and children. 
The different sizes that black bears attain in various sec- 
tions of the country are somewhat remarkable; so much so 
that I have often been induced to believe them entitled to 
be considered different species; but otherwise they are so 
similar in habits of life, choice of food, and residence, that 
it would only be opening a path that might lead to innu- 
merable intricacies without the probability of resulting in 
benefit. The black bear of Michigan, Wisconsin, and the 
regions bordering on these States, never exceeds two hun- 
dred and fifty pounds — these are generally denominated 
hog bear; but when you descend the Mississippi and get 
into the canebrakes of Arkansas, numbers are annually 
killed that reach four hundred-weight. Coming eastward, 
you find a still larger animal; and I have heard from un- 
doubted sources that in the State of Maine, and along the 
edges of New Brunswick, bears have been known to attain 
six or even seven hundred pounds’ weight. Doubtless these 
differences are occasioned by varieties or abundance of food 
that the different regions produce, not temperature or cli- 
mate, as Wisconsin and Maine are almost in the same lat- 
itude. 
Without further preamble, I will attempt a description. 
The black bear is short in carcass, with an unusually bag- 
gy, slack look; the legs are long and powerful in their sweep, 
and the animal can handle them with the skill and profi- 
ciency of a professed pugilist; the head is very nearly an 
equilateral triangle, with the nose for an apex; the ears are 
