Black Bruin

Black Bruin, by Clarence
Hawkes

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Title: Black Bruin The Biography of a Bear
Author: Clarence Hawkes
Illustrator: Charles Copeland
Release Date: May 9, 2007 [EBook #21398]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK
BRUIN ***

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 most
widely disseminated big game, known to hunters.
He makes his home within the Arctic Circle, often living upon the great
ice-floe, or dwells within a tropical jungle, and both climates are
agreeable to him, while longitudinally he has girdled the world.
Of course bruin varies much, according to the climate in which he lives,
and the conditions of his life, but all the way from the poles to the
tropics he retains certain characteristics that always proclaim him 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 Walks
Like a Bear," for some men do walk like a bear.
Bruin's four-footed gait is a shuffle and a shamble, rather clumsy and
ludicrous, but it takes him over the ground at a surprising pace. Queer,
also, is the fact that the bear combines great dexterity with his seeming
clumsiness, as many a hunter has found to his cost. His tree-climbing
accomplishments are likewise remarkable, when we consider his great
size and weight. The grizzlies, and some other large varieties, do not do
tree-climbing, except when they are young. A grizzly cub can climb a
tree, but his wrists soon become too stiff to permit of their bending
about the trunk.
Bruin's disposition also varies with the climate he inhabits. This in turn

is because his diet varies in differing latitudes. The farther south he
ranges, the more of a vegetarian he becomes. Consequently, he is not so
ferocious. The great white polar bear is largely carnivorous, so he is a
creature not to be trifled with; while on the other hand, the little African
sun bear is a rollicking, social, good-natured little chap, weighing many
times less than his fierce cousin.
Formerly, it has been supposed that the Numidian lion and the Bengal
tiger were the largest carnivorous animals in existence, but more recent
discoveries show that our Alaskan brown bear, found upon the
peninsulas of lower Alaska and Kodiak Island, is easily the master of
either, in size or strength. Some of the splendid skins taken from these,
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 that found
upon the cover of the