THE BLACK BEAR—COMEDIAN 105 
esting, and bear-like. Occasionally they climbed 
and started wrestling far out ona limb. Some- 
times they fell off, but caught a limb below 
with their claws, and without a pause, swung 
up again or else dropped to another limb. Once 
they scrambled down the trunk within a few feet 
of the bottom; and as they raced up again the 
lower one snapped at the hind legs of the upper 
one and finally, attaching himself to the other 
with a forepaw, pulled him loose from the tree 
trunk. The upper one thus exchanged places 
with the lower one and the lively scramble up 
the trunk continued. 
After a while one curled up in a place where 
three or four limbs intersected the tree trunk 
and went to sleep. The other went to sleep 
on his back on a flattened limb near the top 
of the tree. 
Realizing that the cubs would stay in the tree, 
no matter what happened, I concluded to cap- 
ture them. Though they had been having 
lively exercise for two hours they were anything 
but exhausted. Climbing into the tree I chased 
them round from the bottom to the top; from the 
top out on limbs, and from limbs to the bottom— 
but was unable to get within reach of them. 
Several times I drove one out on top of a 
limb and then endeavoured to shake him off and 
give him a tumble to the earth. A number of 
