BRINGING HOME THE BEAR. 
93 
ability to maintain life in such a region, and 
marveled especially at the nature of his kind 
to bring forth young in late winter and to rear 
them in the chill and foodless months of Feb¬ 
ruary and March. With great interest we 
sought through his capacious stomach to see 
what he had eaten, and found quarts of ripe 
blueberries, scarlet cherries, and what we at 
first took to be grubs dug from decaying 
stumps. Closer examination showed that Bruin 
had swallowed the whole of a hornet’s nest, for 
the perfect insects, hundreds of their undevel¬ 
oped young in the brood-cells, and the gray, 
papery nest were all recognized. This bear 
certainly knew how to pick ripe blueberries and 
not to pick green ones. I saw but one green 
berry in the quarts which he had gathered. 
Drawing the bear’s fore and hind feet on 
each side together, the hunter strapped them 
firmly. He next tied the head to the feet, so 
that it should not drag, and then passed two 
maple poles through the loops made by the two 
pairs of lashed feet, and called upon the larger 
satellite and the Islander to shoulder their bur¬ 
den. They did so, and the homeward march 
began, the bearers groaning. Possibly a hun¬ 
dred yards had been traversed before the Is¬ 
lander tripped and fell, pulling the bear down 
upon his prostrate form, and receiving also the 
