LOVE OF NATURE.

45

less desolate. The mind requires occupation, and if no pursuit is at hand it will prey upon itself. I have visited the abodes of squalid misery, both in garrets and in cellars, in places from which all earthly comfort seemed to be withdrawn, but never have I met with persons so wretched at heart as those who have no stimulus to exertion. The hope of getting employment is the polar star of such as are out of work, and whose misery springs from this cause; but the individuals of whom I speak have no polar star whatever; to them, therefore, the study of natural history would be a safety-valve, and whatever they brought to the light of science would increase in interest. The flower would appear more beautiful the more it was examined, and the tree, now thought of only as a thing to be cut down and applied to domestic purposes, would stand before them a majestic column, with its internal mechanism wonderfully adapted to answer the requirings of vegetable life; with its outward beauty, majestic even in the depth of winter.

The consideration of all natural objects is calculated to enlarge the mind, whether they are such as men call great, or whether they are such as the foot treads upon, and the eye will scarcely deign to glance at. Ignorance naturally accompanies indifference, and there are many whose feelings and capacities are narrowed within the circle of their daily wants, merely because they have no sympathy with the objects that surround them. But call forth that latent sympathy, and let them understand the extent and the variety of interesting objects that are within their reach, they will seem to acquire new

faculties, and to commence a new existence.

Men of the greatest abilities call nothing insignificant which the Lord has made: to borrow the eloquent observation of a North American naturalist, they can watch from day to day to catch the glance of the small bird's wing, or listen to its song; the world and everything in it looks bright to them, when to others the bird is but a flying animal, and grass and flowers only the covering of the sod.

Proceed we now from the southern regions of the American continent, to consider the Black Bear, a formidable creature which inhabits the recesses of the forests that cover a considerable part of North America. There you may see him, stern, rugged, and untamed, ranging those vast regions in quest of his favourite viands, either fruits and vegetables or small animals, or approaching river banks to search for fish. When the streams are frozen up, and snow lies thick upon the ground, he intrudes on the neighbourhood of cultivated and peopled regions, where he occasionally attacks large animals, and even man himself. His movements on the ground are extremely awkward, but he climbs and swims with ease. In his excursions he usually follows the same path, which becomes at length so well beaten that Indian hunters trace him through the mazes of the forest, and thus unkennel him in his closest coverts.

When the winter sets in with all its attendant horrors, such bears as dwell far north in America, immediately abandon their accustomed haunts, and hasten to a less rigorous climate, where they remain till the

THE BLACK BEAR

47

breaking up of the hard frost. They select a temporary shelter, either in the trunk of some hollow tree, or beneath an overhanging rock; this they furnish with dry leaves, and soon sink into a lethargic slumber, from which nothing awakes them till the return of spring. It seems as if their movements were controlled by some unerring guide—as if the bounds of their habitations were so determined that they could not pass the allotted barriers; they never descend further south than the latitude of the Floridas, nor westward than the Pacific Ocean. Yet still the boundary is an ample one; it embraces an extent of country which combines the sternness of of winter and the beauty of perpetual spring. Throughout this extensive portion, black bears may therefore be said to be indigenous, though, like the native tribes, once lords of the new world, they disappear from the newly-peopled districts. But the growling brotherhood do not retreat when the first blows of the settler's axe fall heavy on the trunks of the noble trees; they linger in the recesses of the remaining forests, of such especially as yield the mast on which they principally feed; nor is it till the last group has fallen, that they finally disappear. Even then, if there be mountains in the distance, or a range of broken rocks covered with underwood, they repair thither as occasional visitors, and the settler, who pleases himself with thinking that the ancient tenants of the soil have fled away to the lone wilderness, may chance to see a company of them in some bright moonlight night feeding among his wheat or maize. Happy would it be for him, if, when the meal was finished, they quietly with

drew; but this is not their way, they often gambol and frolic about in their own peculiar manner, and trample under foot far more than they consume. Deeply vexed at seeing his field thus injured, the farmer can only look on and complain of the invasion; for, unless he can summon to his aid stout men and faithful dogs, he may not venture to intrude upon the dancers.

It also happens, and not unfrequently, that when a wide extent of country has been effectually cleared, when scarcely a tree remains to tell of the vast forests that once shadowed the land, and when the numerous population of wild animals, bears and foxes, racoons and monkeys, with their various tribes and families, have hastened far from the log-built cabins into the depths of untrodden forests, that suddenly a company of bears have reappeared, and haunted for some time every valley and mountain-ridge, making it dangerous to pass, and sallying forth at night into the vicinity of farm-houses, where, however, their depredations are almost exclusively confined to the pig-sty, or rather to the hog-yard.

According to Clarke and Lewis, many powerful and ferocious species of the bear are found in the Arctic regions of America. But most probably these are varieties distinguished by different shades of colour. The Indians speak of them as equally strong and rapacious, and such is their dread of these fierce creatures, that they never venture to attack an individual, except in parties of six and eight, and even then they are frequently defeated with the loss of one or more of their numbers.

FEROCIOUS SPECIES OF BEARS.

49

Armed solely with bows and arrows, or with guns that cannot be depended on, they are obliged to approach the animal, and as no wound except through the head or heart is mortal, they often fall victims, if they miss their aim. Indeed, the Transatlantic Bear will rather attack than avoid a man. Such is the terror he inspires, that the Indians who go in quest of him paint themselves, and perform various superstitious rites, before proceeding to the fray.

These people destroy considerable numbers by setting fire to their favourite haunts; the forests are their home, and throughout the extent of Canada and Louisiana, they prefer residing in hollow trees. Those who have merely seen this formidable crea

E