IOO 
MAMMALIA.. 
out of time. In fact, as they grew apace, the parental visitations in- 
creased so rapidly I began to fear she would put an end to my Bear 
investigations by chastising the lives out of them, but of late she has 
slackened in her attentions, and 1 am in hopes of following the 
growth of Ursns Americanns from babyhood to adolescence.” * 
Black Bears commonly have two or three cubs at a birth, and rare- 
ly, four. It is doubtful if they have young oftener than every other 
year. 
Early in February, 1878, E. L. Sheppard, J. W. Shultz, and E. N. 
Arnold, while on a Panther hunt in the country northeast of Big Otter 
Lake, came across a line cf dimples in the snow that indicated, to 
their practised eyes, the course taken by a large Bear some time 
before, and now almost hidden by a heavy fall of snow that had oc- 
curred about three weeks previously. Judging that the animal had 
been searching for winter quarters they determined to follow it; but 
being out of provisions Sheppard and Shultz returned to camp for a 
new supply, while Arnold took the track. Owing to the thickness 
of the forest the snow had not drifted and therefore he had little dif- 
ficulty in keeping the track, though nearly a foot of snow covered 
it. He soon reached the den, which was an excavation in the 
side of a knoll. Not only was the Bear not asleep, but she was ex- 
tremely lively and earnest in her attempts to get out. Fortunately, 
however, she was already frozen in, and during her fierce and furious 
efforts to reach Mr. Arnold he succeeded in shooting her dead. Not- 
withstanding- the fact that he was well armed Mr. Arnold avers that 
if the Bear had had a free exit trom her den he doubts much if he 
would have lived to narrate the occurrence. After killing the Bear 
he discovered that there were three living young beneath her in the 
den. He put them in his pocket, but they died that night. They 
were very small and helpless, and were probably about two weeks old. 
In April of the same year one ol the guides found another Bear in 
her den in a swamp south of Fourth Lake, Fulton Chain. This den, 
* Forest and Stream, Vol. XIII, No. 4, Sept. 4, 1879, p. 605. 
