March 12, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
415 
Concerning Black Bears. 
Bennington, Vt., March 1 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: After reading Mr. Bignell’s ex¬ 
perience with a certain black bear in Canada I 
am still of the opinion that “almost invariably 
black bears will get out of the way for people 
who are not afraid of them.” It is the excep¬ 
tion that proves the rule in this case. All natu¬ 
ralists admit that bears are subject to individual 
variations of temper. So with all other wild 
animals. Any of them will fight under certain 
peculiar conditions when they seem to be con¬ 
vinced that they are cornered and must fight 
as an act of self-preservation. I have seen 
woodchucks and even rabbits put up a good 
fight in defense of their lives or of their young. 
And, of course, any wild animal that turns on 
its pursuer and finds the latter will flee, gen¬ 
erally gains courage and will follow. The whole 
trouble is we only hear of these exceptional 
cases. That female bears with young will, as 
a rule, retreat from man is so common that 
stories of this character are not often seen in 
print. I have had a number of experiences with 
black bear mothers with young, and will recall 
two recent ones. 
A few years ago in the month of August I 
was patrolling a stream—the so-called Roaring 
Branch in the town of Pownal, Vermont. On 
this occasion 1 took with me as a companion 
my pointer puppy, Don. This brook is a roar¬ 
ing mountain torrent in one place—known as 
the Notch—lying between two high ledges. Over 
one of these ledges is a famous bear country. 
I permitted my dog to run about at will, and 
as he was then quite young he was full of play 
and vitality. Going over this ledge I heard Don 
barking briskly some distance ahead of me. I 
looked up the trail and saw him backing away 
from something and jumping from side to side 
—acting as he usually did when he wanted to 
worry a house cat. I watched carefully and 
presently I saw a large bear make a rush at the 
dog and rise on its hind legs as though prepar¬ 
ing to strike him. Don was too quick for the 
bear and seemed to enjoy the fun. I pulled out 
my army revolver and walked up the trail. 
The bear and dog were so interested they did 
not see me until I was within about twenty 
yards of them, then the bear saw me and dis¬ 
appeared down the mountain side like a flash. 
Don followed her to the stream and then re¬ 
turned to me. However, he did not seem to 
want to leave the place, but hunted through the 
underbrush. Suddenly he “made game” on 
something right under his feet. He did not 
bark, but moved a short distance and stopped 
on a point. I approached and away went a 
cub bear; then another went over the ledge on 
my left. Where was the furious mother bear? 
Last September Warden Lozier and I were 
along the East Branch of the Deerfield River 
in Stratton, Vermont. We both carried rifles, 
for we knew there were bears in that country, 
and a panther had also been seen. We were 
traveling along an old corduroy log road much 
grown over. I was in the lead and saw a little 
black head peeping out of the brush not ten 
feet from me. At first I thought it was a wood¬ 
chuck or a hedgehog. However, I threw my 
rifle over one shoulder and thought I would 
catch the little animal, provided it had no quil’s. 
Well, just as I reached the spot the little creat¬ 
ure jumped into the road ahead of me. Imagine 
my surprise to see it was a bear cub instead of 
a woodchuck. I fell right on to it and grabbed 
it in my arm. I expected the mother bear would 
be on me in a minute, but I knew Warden 
Lozier would take care of her, so I tried to 
hold the cub, but he slipped through my arm 
and escaped into the brush. He made a peculiar 
squealing noise and disappeared. In the mean¬ 
time the mother bear was nearer the stream 
and some ten or fifteen yards away from the 
clark’s nutcracker on nest. 
From a photograph by J. W. Parsons. 
cub. When she heard us she went into the 
stream with a splash, crossed the brook with a 
rush and ran through the woods like the Empire 
State Express, not seeming to care what be¬ 
came of her young. We also got a glimpse of 
the other cub trying to follow her, but both the 
little ones were left hopelessly in the rear in 
the mad rush of their mother to escape from 
her human enemies. 
At any rate, here are recorded two cases where 
the mother bears did not remain -to defend their 
young. Of course these stories are more pro¬ 
saic and less exciting, but they assist in mak¬ 
ing up a record of facts concerning the ways 
and habits of the black bear. 
Harry Chase, County Warden. 
It is human to generalize from one’s own 
experience—and without very much regard to 
how limited that experience may be. Because 
we see a certain bird or animal act in a par¬ 
ticular way, we are disposed to conclude that 
it always acts in that way. Moreover, the 
average man takes it for granted that all birds 
and animals of a species always act in precisely 
the same way, never considering that for all 
we know each individual of any species may 
be influenced by half a dozen motives of which 
the observer knows nothing and the meaning 
of which might be altogether obscure, even if 
he knew them. 
If we stop to think for a. moment we will 
all acknowledge that there is as much physical 
variation among animals of the same species 
as there is among men. To you and to me, if 
we look at a band of sheep of the same age, 
£ach sheep looks like all the others. The 
sheep herder, on the other hand, if he has 
been with this band for' some time, recognizes 
the countenance of almost every sheep in the 
bunch. In the same way, to a white man who 
for the first time sees a number of Chinamen, 
these all look alike, yet of course a little ac¬ 
quaintance shows him that there is much in¬ 
dividuality among them. 
Just as it is true that no two animals are 
alike in appearance, so it is probably true that 
no two are alike in physical or mental powers, 
if we may use that term. Some deer or prong¬ 
horned antelope, or rabbits, are swifter than 
others. Some are more cunning than others. 
Young animals are heedless and curious, and 
so have a smaller chance to survive than has 
the old buck which, by much training, has 
learned all the tricks of the hunters, and is 
likely to be able to circumvent them, and 
finally to die of old age, or in some manner 
more natural than to be shot by man. 
Every now and then we hear of bears doing 
extraordinary things. But bear stories are to 
be received with caution. Ever since the days 
of Elijah the Tishbite, bears have been a 
favorite theme for story tellers, and the cause 
of trembling to women, children and most 
men. The fate of the thoughtless and irrev¬ 
erent forty and two children who were cursed 
by Elijah’s successor is still remembered. 
Even to-day it is believed by many people 
that the woods, the mountains and the prairies 
swarm with bears, who are always ready to 
devour the people who sleep out of doors. On 
the other hand people who have been much in 
the open know that in modern times a bear 
desires nothing so much as to get away from 
the neighborhood of any human being. There 
are of course some authentic accounts of 
people being killed by grizzly bears—few 
modern ones, I think—and many accounts of 
charges by grizzly bears. I believe that most 
of these are founded either on imperfect ob¬ 
servation, or on the fact that the observer, by 
an unlucky chance, happened to find himself 
in the path that the escaping bear was follow¬ 
ing. It is only a year or two since Mr. Frisbie 
told in Forest and Stream a very interesting 
story of this kind. 
It is commonly believed that a grizzly bear 
