Black Bruin: The Biography of a Bear Read online

  Produced by Al Haines

  [Frontispiece: BLACK BRUIN'S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH A PANTHER]

  BLACK BRUIN

  The Biography of a Bear

  By

  Clarence Hawkes

  Author of

  Shaggycoat, The Biography of a Beaver The Trail to the Woods Tenants of the Trees The Little Foresters etc.

  Illustrated by

  Charles Copeland

  Philadelphia

  George W. Jacobs & Co.

  Publishers

  Copyright, 1908, by

  GEORGE W. JACOBS AND COMPANY

  _All rights reserved_

  Printed in U. S. A.

  Dedicated to

  My illustrator and friend

  MR. CHARLES COPELAND

  whose clever brush has caught so perfectly each whim of nature in field and forest, and called from hiding the furtive furred and feathered folk, who come and go like shadows in the ancient woods.

  THE GREAT BEAR OF THE MOUNTAINS

  He had stolen the belt of Wampum From the neck of Mishe-mokwa, From the Great Bear of the mountains, From the terror of the nations, As he lay asleep and cumbrous, On the summit of the mountains, Like a rock with mosses on it, Spotted brown and gray with mosses. --LONGFELLOW.

  CONTENTS

  URSUS, THE DROLL. INTRODUCTORY I. A THIEF IN THE NIGHT II. THE CHASE III. A WILDERNESS BABY IV. THE CUBHOOD OF BLACK BRUIN V. A ROLLICKING ROGUE VI. THE LIFE OF A DANCING-BEAR VII. THE VAGABONDS VIII. THE BEAST AND THE MAN IX. LIFE IN THE WILD X. THE GREAT BEAR-HUNT XI. A PLEASANT COMPANION XII. THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN XIII. THE BEAR WITH A COLLAR XIV. THE WRECK

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Black Bruin's first acquaintance with a panther . . . _Frontispiece_

  The bear hurried in hot pursuit

  Black Bruin dealt the porcupine a crushing blow

  Growler sprang at Black Bruin's throat

  He discovered another bear, watching the stream

  URSUS, THE DROLL

  INTRODUCTORY

  With the possible exception of the deer family, the bear is the mostwidely disseminated big game, known to hunters.

  He makes his home within the Arctic Circle, often living upon the greatice-floe, or dwells within a tropical jungle, and both climates areagreeable to him, while longitudinally he has girdled the world.

  Of course bruin varies much, according to the climate in which helives, and the conditions of his life, but all the way from the polesto the tropics he retains certain characteristics that always proclaimhim a bear.

  He is a plantigrade, walking like a man upon the soles of his feet.There is more truth than poetry in Kipling's poem, "The Man Who WalksLike a Bear," for some men do walk like a bear.

  Bruin's four-footed gait is a shuffle and a shamble, rather clumsy andludicrous, but it takes him over the ground at a surprising pace.Queer, also, is the fact that the bear combines great dexterity withhis seeming clumsiness, as many a hunter has found to his cost. Histree-climbing accomplishments are likewise remarkable, when we considerhis great size and weight. The grizzlies, and some other largevarieties, do not do tree-climbing, except when they are young. Agrizzly cub can climb a tree, but his wrists soon become too stiff topermit of their bending about the trunk.

  Bruin's disposition also varies with the climate he inhabits. This inturn is because his diet varies in differing latitudes. The farthersouth he ranges, the more of a vegetarian he becomes. Consequently, heis not so ferocious. The great white polar bear is largelycarnivorous, so he is a creature not to be trifled with; while on theother hand, the little African sun bear is a rollicking, social,good-natured little chap, weighing many times less than his fiercecousin.

  Formerly, it has been supposed that the Numidian lion and the Bengaltiger were the largest carnivorous animals in existence, but morerecent discoveries show that our Alaskan brown bear, found upon thepeninsulas of lower Alaska and Kodiak Island, is easily the master ofeither, in size or strength. Some of the splendid skins taken fromthese, the largest of all the bears, measure fourteen feet in length.Alaska also gives us the smallest North American bear, the glacial bear.

  Californians are wont to tell us that the only true grizzly is thatfound upon the cover of the _Overland Monthly_, but they overlook thefact that the name was given to bears found along the Missouri River byLewis and Clarke, years before California, with all its wealth, wasdiscovered.

  In Russia, a fine specimen of the family is found in the UralMountains. His peculiarity is a white collar about the neck, so hisLatin name, _Ursus collaris_, means the bear with a collar. Allthrough the Himalayas, this restless plantigrade has wandered, and evenfar down upon the low-lying plains of India and China; but all the wayhe shuffles and shambles and is the same droll fellow.

  The bear's vegetable diet consists of berries, nuts and many kinds ofroots. He will not refuse sweet apples and pears when he can findthem. In the tropics he eats nearly all the fruits that the nativeseat and leads altogether a lazy, luxurious life. Since food isplentiful in these warm climates, he does not have to cross the path ofman to get it, or be forced to steal, as the bear living in colderclimes often does; so he is a good-natured, easy-going fellow, who willlet you alone if you do not pick a quarrel with him. This is much moretrue of bears in general, than is usually supposed.

  In the tropics, the bear does not have to hibernate to keep the fatthat he has gained in the time of plenty upon his ribs. So his periodof sleeping is very short and in many cases he does not hibernate atall; while, on the other hand, the bear of the cold northland sleepsnearly half of the year.

  Hibernation seems to be a wise provision of nature by means of whichthe bear conserves his flesh and strength during extreme weather. Whenthe ground is covered several feet deep with snow, it will readily beseen that berry-picking would be difficult, and nuts and roots would behard to find, as would the ants and grubs under logs and stones, withwhich the bear varies his diet in fine weather. The chipmunks and micehave also denned up, so there is not much for bruin to do but sleep.

  There is one weakness that I believe the bear always indulges wheneverhe can, no matter in what clime he be found, and that is a love forsweets, especially honey. He will dare the sharp bayonets of the mostangry swarm of bees or climb the worst tree, if he feels at all certainthat there will be honey after his pains. In some countries, hedamages a great many telephone and telegraph poles and wires byclimbing the poles in search of that swarm of bees, which he imagineshe hears humming, inside the pole.

  In the temperate zone bears mate in the summer months and the young areborn late in January, during hibernation. Bear-cubs are very smallbabies for such large parents, weighing much less in proportion totheir dams than most other mammals. They are blind, helpless andalmost hairless.

  As the old bear is very fat when they are born and they do nothing butsleep in the dark den, they grow rapidly, so that when they are finallybrought forth at the age of perhaps four months, they have developedwonderfully and would hardly be recognized as the tiny blind cubs of afew weeks before.

  When the old bears first come forth from hibernation they eat verylittle for two or three weeks. Their long fast and the inactivity ofthe vital organs have greatly weakened the digestive parts, so theymust have time in which to recover, before they are made to do the hardwork of digesting flesh and bone. The bear, therefore, wisely contentshimself with grass and browse, living very much as a deer would, untilhis digestive organs have regained their usual tone, when he will gorgehimself upon the first victim that he is lucky enough to catch.

  If Bruin lives in the vici
nity of civilization, he would prefer tobreak his fast with tender young pig. Pig, to the bear, is what'possum is to the negro. He will travel for miles and take risks thathe does not often expose himself to, if thereby he can secure asquealing porker.

  The sire and dam do not hibernate together and they are seen togetheronly during a few weeks of their honeymoon.

  Winter quarters are usually found under a fallen tree-top, or in somenatural den in the rocks. If a suitable place cannot be secured, thebear will even do some excavating on his own account, but theygenerally choose a den that nature has provided.

  The smaller bears which are usually known as the black bear, are foundto be both black and brown. Cubs of both colors will often bediscovered with the same mother, but the brown variety is not foundeast of the Mississippi River. The really black bear also varies incolor with the seasons, being darker and glossier in the cold months.

  To see a bear really enjoy himself is to discover him in the blueberrylot, standing upon his hind legs, swooping the berries into his mouthwith ravenous delight. At such a time his grin of benevolence is veryapparent.

  The cubs den up with the old bear the first fall, but usually shift forthemselves when the new cubs come, although it is not an infrequentsight to see an old bear with two sizes of cubs following her.

  As a rule, the different varieties of black bear are not dangerous.While they will occasionally charge the hunter when wounded, theyusually flee away at their best pace when danger appears.

  Even when interested with berry-picking or hunting, the bear iswatchful and wary and as his scent and hearing are of the keenest, heis hard to surprise. It is probably true that his eyesight is not askeen as his other senses.

  The black bear is hunted both on the still hunt, and with dogs. Whendogs are employed, a large pack is used, and they merely run the bearuntil it is treed or brought to bay, when it is shot by the hunter.Dogs are of little, if any, use in hunting grizzlies.

  There are several varieties of large bears, probably all variations ofgrizzlies, which are differentiated locally. Some of these are theroachback, the silver tip, the California grizzly, the plains bear, thesmut-face, etc.

  In the olden days before the grizzly became wise, he would chargeanything that walked either on two or four feet. But he has nowlearned all about firearms, and is as willing to run from the hunter,as is his cousin, the black bear.

  The bear's manner of hunting large game is usually by ambush. As mostof his victims are more fleet of foot than he, he does not undertake torun them down in the open, but if he can get them at disadvantage inthick cover, or at the lick, this is his opportunity.

  In the Adirondack country and in Northern Maine, it is a common sightto see a young bear about a farmhouse, where he is as much at home asthe farm-dog. Many of the summer hotels, in this region, keep a tamebear to amuse the visitors.

  These bears are obtained as cubs from any one who is fortunate enoughto discover a bear's den and who has the good luck to find the old bearaway from home and the cubs at his mercy.

  A likely cub can usually be obtained in either Maine or Northern NewYork for five or ten dollars.

  Bears occasionally stray down the Green Mountains into WesternMassachusetts, where they inhabit the Hoosac Mountains, which are acontinuation of this range.

  Very recently a bear was killed near October Mountain, upon Mr.Whitney's extensive game-preserve. He had been hanging about themountain all summer and had given two belated pedestrians a livelysprint only the night before his Waterloo. Being emboldened by theseeming servility of the neighborhood, bruin finally went to afarmhouse and, forcing the kitchen door, marched boldly into thewell-ordered room to see what they were going to have for dinner.While waiting for this meal, he amused himself by tumbling the pots andpans about. This enraged the thrifty housewife, who seized adouble-barreled shotgun standing in the corner and discharged bothbarrels simultaneously at the intruder. When the smoke cleared away,it was discovered that she had bagged a bear weighing three hundredpounds.

  The dancing bear of song and story, as well as of real life, has longbeen the delight of children, but he is not now seen as frequently asof yore. Bears in the circus to-day play a minor part in theperformance.

  This short introductory chapter is the pedigree and characteristics inbrief, of Ursus, the bear, whose varieties, like those of Reynard, thefox, are legion.

  I have tried to give the reader some idea of the bear in general, butthese facts about bruin must be varied as the climate varies betweenthe arctic regions and the tropics. If a meat diet makes man cross andbrutal, and a fruit and vegetable diet makes him amiable and indolent,they affect bruin in the same manner.

  But wherever you find a bear, be he a grizzly, black, or polar, baskingin the tropical sun, or freezing upon the ice-floe, he will still bethe same droll old chap, shuffling and shambling, sniffing andinquiring with his keen nose. If he be the smaller black or brownbear, he will often be found in the company of man, conducting himselfwith dignity, and generally showing much good behavior for a wild beast.