200 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



eyes are small, black, and intelligent, and the ears are 

 somewhat rounded in outline ; on the whole, his face 

 is not an unkind one, and it has a certain canine 

 suggestion both gentle and reassuring ; but hunted 

 down and in a desperate encounter with a hunter, 

 bruin assumes an expression of countenance sinister 

 in the extreme. Mr. W. W. Thomas describes a 

 close and dangerous meeting with a wounded bear 

 thus : * " I see the beast leaping on all fours, hind 

 quarters high, fore shoulders low, head down and 

 askew, snout turned to the right, lip curled up like a 

 snarling dog, teeth chattering, and black eyes gleam- 

 ing with a devilish light. On comes the monster 

 with his vibrating, gi'unting growl, Knar-r-r-r-r ! As 

 the gun swings up to my face I glance along the 

 barrels, and see the snapping teeth of the leaping 

 brute within four feet of my gun muzzle. I fire. 

 The beast falls forward with a heavy thud at my 

 feet ! " 



Bruin's voice is far from musical. After a queer 

 sniff made by drawing in the breath there is a gut- 

 tural growl, which sounds like a prolonged Gnar-r-r- 

 r-r-r-r ! far deeper-toned and more threatening than 

 the warning growl of an angry mastiff. But in cap- 

 tivity the black bear rarely exhibits any symptoms of 



* Vide A Week in a Dug-out, liiirpor's Magazine, vol. Ixiii, 

 1881, p. 830. 



