them an easy prey to the hunter. The speed of the Black Bear when in pursuit is
said not to be very great, and I have been told that a man may escape from it,
particularly if he runs into a willow grove or amongst long grass: for the caution
of the Bear obliges it to stop frequently and rise on its hind legs for the purpose
of reconnoitring. I have, however, seen a Black Bear make off with a speed that
would have baffled the fleetest runner, and ascend a nearly perpendicular cliff with
a facility that a cat might envy.
This Bear, when resident in the fur countries, almost invariably hibernates, and
about one thousand skins are annually procured by the Hudson’s Bay Company,
from Black Bears destroyed in their winter retreats. It generally selects a spot
for its den under a fallen tree, and having scratched away a portion of the soil,
retires to it at the commencement of a snow-storm, when the snow soon furnishes
it with a close, warm covering. Its breath makes a small opening in the den,
and the quantity of hoar frost which occasionally gathers round the aperture serves
to betray its retreat to the hunter. In more southern districts, where the timber
is of a larger size, Bears often shelter themselves in hollow trees. The Indians
remark that a Bear never retires to its den for the winter until it has acquired a
thick coat of fat, and it is remarkable that when it comes abroad in the spring it
is equally fat, though in a few days thereafter it becomes very lean. Thé period of
the retreat of the Bears is generally about the time when the snow begins to lie
on the ground, and they do not come abroad again until the greater part of the
snow is gone. At both these periods they can procure many kinds of berries
in considerable abundance. In latitude 65°, their winter repose lasts from the
beginning of October to the first or second week of May ; but on the northern
shores of Lake Huron, the period is from two to three months shorter. In very
severe winters, great numbers of Bears have been observed to enter the United
States from the northward. On these occasions, they were very lean, and almost
all males; the few females which accompanied them were not with young *, The
remark of the natives above-mentioned, that the fat Bears alone hibernate, explains
the cause of these migrations. The Black Bears in the northern districts couple in
September, when they are in good condition from feeding on the berries then in
maturity. The females retire at once to their dens, and conceal themselves so
carefully that even the lyncean eye of an Indian hunter very rarely detects them ;
but the males, exhausted by the pursuit of the female, require ten or twelve days
to recover their lost fat. An unusually" early winter will, it is evident, operate
* P ennant’s Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 60.
most severely on the males, by preventing them from fattening a second time;
hence their migration at such times to more southerly districts. It is not, however,
true that the Black Bears generally abandon the northern districts on the
approach of winter, as has been asserted, the quantity of Bear skins procured
during that season in all parts of the fur countries being a sufficient proof to the
contrary. The females bring forth about the beginning of January, and it is probable
that the period of their gestation is about fifteen or sixteen weeks, but I
believe it has not been precisely ascertained. The number of cubs varies from
one to five, probably with the age of the mother, and they begin to bear long
before they attain their full size.
The Black Bear inhabits every wooded district of the American continent, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina to the shores of the Arctic sea.
They are, however, more numerous inland than near the sea-coast. Langsdorff
observes, that “ the valuable Black Bear, the skins of which form part of the
(Russian) .Company’s stock, are not the produce of the Aleutian islands, but
of the continent of America, about Cook’s river, Prince William’s Sound, and
other places *.
The strength and agility of the Bear, together with its tenacity of life, render
an attack upon it hazardous, and its chace has been considered by the rude inhabitants
of the northern regions as a matter of the highest importance. Many of
the native tribes of America will not join the chace until they have propitiated the
whole race of Bears by certain speeches and ceremonies, and when the animal is
slain they treat it with the utmost respect, speak of it as of a relation, offer it
a pipe to smoke, and seldom fail to make a speech in exculpation of the act of
violence they have committed in slaying- it, although the hunter at the same time
glories in his prowess- This veneration for the Bear seems to have arisen from
the ability and pertinacity with which it defends itself; and it is interesting to
observe in how similar a manner the same feeling manifests itself in tribes speaking
diverse languages, and widely separated from each other by geographical
position. Thus, Regnard informs us that the chase of the Bear is the most
solemn action of the Laplander, and the successful hunter may be known by and
exults in the number of tufts of bear’s hair he wears in his bonnet. When the
retreat of a Bear is discovered, the ablest sorcerer Of the tribe beats the runic
drumf to discover the event of the chase, and the side on which the animal
* Langsdorff’s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 74.
f The same kind of drum, shaped like a double-headed tambourine, and painted with arbitrary characters Or rude
representations of wild beasts and of the heavenly bodies, is common throughout all the various North American tribes.
D