Black Bruin | Page 2

Overland Monthly, but they overlook the fact that
the name was given to bears found along the Missouri River by Lewis
and Clarke, years before California, with all its wealth, was discovered.
In Russia, a fine specimen of the family is found in the Ural Mountains.
His peculiarity is a white collar about the neck, so his Latin name,
Ursus collaris, means the bear with a collar. All through the Himalayas,
this restless plantigrade has wandered, and even far down upon the
low-lying plains of India and China; but all the way he shuffles and
shambles and is the same droll fellow.
The bear's vegetable diet consists of berries, nuts and many kinds of
roots. He will not refuse sweet apples and pears when he can find them.
In the tropics he eats nearly all the fruits that the natives eat and leads
altogether a lazy, luxurious life. Since food is plentiful in these warm
climates, he does not have to cross the path of man to get it, or be
forced to steal, as the bear living in colder climes often does; so he is a
good-natured, easy-going fellow, who will let you alone if you do not
pick a quarrel with him. This is much more true of bears in general,
than is usually supposed.
In the tropics, the bear does not have to hibernate to keep the fat that he

has gained in the time of plenty upon his ribs. So his period of sleeping
is very short and in many cases he does not hibernate at all; while, on
the other hand, the bear of the cold northland sleeps nearly half of the
year.
Hibernation seems to be a wise provision of nature by means of which
the bear conserves his flesh and strength during extreme weather. When
the ground is covered several feet deep with snow, it will readily be
seen that berry-picking would be difficult, and nuts and roots would be
hard to find, as would the ants and grubs under logs and stones, with
which the bear varies his diet in fine weather. The chipmunks and mice
have 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 whenever
he can, no matter in what clime he be found, and that is a love for
sweets, especially honey. He will dare the sharp bayonets of the most
angry swarm of bees or climb the worst tree, if he feels at all certain
that there will be honey after his pains. In some countries, he damages a
great many telephone and telegraph poles and wires by climbing the
poles in search of that swarm of bees, which he imagines he hears
humming, inside the pole.
In the temperate zone bears mate in the summer months and the young
are born late in January, during hibernation. Bear-cubs are very small
babies for such large parents, weighing much less in proportion to their
dams than most other mammals. They are blind, helpless and almost
hairless.
As the old bear is very fat when they are born and they do nothing but
sleep in the dark den, they grow rapidly, so that when they are finally
brought forth at the age of perhaps four months, they have developed
wonderfully and would hardly be recognized as the tiny blind cubs of a
few weeks before.
When the old bears first come forth from hibernation they eat very little
for two or three weeks. Their long fast and the inactivity of the vital
organs have greatly weakened the digestive parts, so they must have
time in which to recover, before they are made to do the hard work of

digesting flesh and bone. The bear, therefore, wisely contents himself
with grass and browse, living very much as a deer would, until his
digestive organs have regained their usual tone, when he will gorge
himself upon the first victim that he is lucky enough to catch.
If Bruin lives in the vicinity of civilization, he would prefer to break 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 that he does not often
expose himself to, if thereby he can secure a squealing porker.
The sire and dam do not hibernate together and they are seen together
only during a few weeks of their honeymoon.
Winter quarters are usually found under a fallen tree-top, or in some
natural den in the rocks. If a suitable place cannot be secured, the bear
will even do some excavating on his own account, but they generally
choose a den that nature has provided.
The smaller bears which are usually known as the black bear,