URSUS AMERICANUS. ^q^ 



are busy in tearing the flesh from his legs or ripping open his 

 bowels. 



Bears are frequently tamed and, being intelligent brutes, make in- 

 teresting pets ; but their dispositions are not of the gentlest type, 

 and in growing old, they are apt, at times, to become obstinate and 

 unruly, if not dangerous, and often have to be killed. 



A curious instance of the mischief-making propensity of this ani- 

 mal has recendy attracted considerable attention. During the past 

 summer (1882) the Adirondack Survey established a Signal Station 

 on Black Mountain, near the head of Fourth Lake. Returning one 

 day, after a temporary absence, the members of the party were as- 

 tonished to find their tent torn down, and blankets books, and instru- 

 ments strewn about upon the ground. The footprints of a Bear re- 

 vealed the identity of the marauder; and Mr. Colvin. Superintendent 

 of the Survey, afterwards fired at and wounded the beast, but did 

 not succeed in capturing him. 



There being no bounty on Bears in New York State, it is impossi- 

 ble to ascertain how many are annually destroyed in this W^ilderness. 

 That the average number killed each year exceeds thirty there can 

 be no reasonable doubt, and I have known this number to be killed 

 in Lewis County alone in a single season. 



Bear's meat is sometimes very good, and sometimes quite the re- 

 verse. I have eaten it when it tasted like fresh pork, and at other 

 times when its flavor was so rank and disagreeable as to render it 

 quite unpalatable. Age, sex, season, and food have to do with this 

 difference. 



In r^orest and Stream for Dec. 26, 1878, is printed a portion of an 

 original manuscript of one Paul Dudley, written about the year 17 18. 

 One paragraph, relating to this species, runs as follows : 

 . " Black l^ears — When the snow is deep they den, and don't come 

 out till the snow is so wasted as they can trail their food — nuts, 

 acorns, frogs, berries, crickets, grapes — and preys also. Don't carry 

 food into their dens; generally den alone, unless it be a she with her 



