in the grapple, when it had failed to throw him down, it raised itself on its hind legs, clasping him across the shoulders with its fore-paws.  Apparently it had no intention of hugging, but merely sought to draw him within reach of his jaws.  He fought desperately against this, using the knife freely, and striving to keep its head back; and the flow of blood weakened the animal, so that it finally fell exhausted, before being able dangerously to injure him.  But it had bitten his left arm very severely, and its claws had made long gashes on his shoulders.

Black bears, like grislies, vary greatly in their modes of attack.  Sometimes they rush in and bite; and again they strike with their fore-paws.  Two of my cowboys were originally from Maine, where I knew them well.  There they were fond of trapping bears and caught a good many.  The huge steel gins, attached by chains to heavy clogs, prevented the trapped beasts from going far; and when found they were always tied tight round some tree or bush, and usually nearly exhausted.  The men killed them either with a little 32-calibre pistol or a hatchet.  But once did they meet with any difficulty.  On this occasion one of them incautiously approached a captured bear to knock it on the head with his hatchet, but the animal managed to partially untwist itself, and with its free fore-arm made a rapid sweep at him; he jumped back just in time, the bear’s claws tearing his clothes—­after which he shot it.  Bears are shy and have very keen noses; they are therefore hard to kill by fair hunting, living, as they generally do, in dense forests or thick brush.  They are easy enough to trap, however.  Thus, these two men, though they trapped so many, never but once killed them in any other way.  On this occasion one of them, in the winter, found in a great hollow log a den where a she and two well-grown cubs had taken up their abode, and shot all three with his rifle as they burst out.

Where they are much hunted, bear become purely nocturnal; but in the wilder forests I have seen them abroad at all hours, though they do not much relish the intense heat of noon.  They are rather comical animals to watch feeding and going about the ordinary business of their lives.  Once I spent half an hour lying at the edge of a wood and looking at a black bear some three hundred yards off across an open glade.  It was in good stalking country, but the wind was unfavorable and I waited for it to shift—­waited too long as it proved, for something frightened the beast and he made off before I could get a shot at him.  When I first saw him he was shuffling along and rooting in the ground, so that he looked like a great pig.  Then he began to turn over the stones and logs to hunt for insects, small reptiles, and the like.  A moderate-sized stone he would turn over with a single clap of his paw, and then plunge his nose down into the hollow to gobble up the small creatures beneath while still dazed by the light.