The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-05
HRuH As REN II gHE NOgDS.
A SHY CREATURE. UNLIKE THE'
BEAR or THE sT0RY BOOKS.

oepvreAt iso7. bF Nm. ,. Long,

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sbore 81 q Lake. end What Hap Peaed,
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Ever since nursery days Bruin has been g
creature Of imagination. He dwells there
q ferooious beast, providing about gloomy
woods seeking whom he may devouri ever
ready to rush upon tho unwary traveller
and eat him on the spot. Every child who
passes the woods at ~night-and, II the
truth were told, almost every man as we'll
has such q fraud bear slowed away In his
head, and tits harder than cube roo 10
get rid Of him.
Occasionally when q dancing bear comes
to our town we chase Bruin out Of our
imagination. Then he becomes q poor,
tired, clumsy creature. footsore and dusty,
with q halter around his neck and q swarthy
| foreigner to make his life miserable.
At the word he rises to his hind legs and
tumbles awkwardly around IN Q circle, while
the foreigner sings sHorTy, horny. dunn
dunn and his wife passes the hat. A
vague pity for the poor creature steals into
our hearts a. We watch and makes US
forget the other animal that frightens us
when near the woods at night.
But he passes IN at last. with O troop
OF boys following to the town limits. Next
day the banished Bruin comes back and
lives in our imagination, as ugly and fright
full as ever.
But Mooween the beRr. &c the northern
Indians call him, the animal that lives in
the big woods Of Maine and Canads. 10
very different from these two creatures.
He Is big and glossy black, with long whlte
teeth and terrible black claws. like the
imagination bear.
Unlike him, however, he eats no tray
ellers. except ants and grubs and frogs,
besides roots and grass and beechnuts
and wild honey. Moreover. he is shy and
wild. and timid as any rabbit. When you
camp in the wilderness at night the rabbit
will come into your open tent TO pull at
pour shoe. or TO nibble q hole In the salt
bag while you sleep. He will play twenty
pranks under your very eyes. But IL you
would see Mooween you must camp many
summers and tramp many a happy mile
through the big forests before catching a
glimpse Of him, or seeing any trace ave
the deep tracks. like a barefoot boys, left
in some soft bit Of earth after his hurried
fight.
Mooween's ears are quick and his nose
lie very keen. The slightest warning from
either that you are In the woods will gen.
orally send him of to the densest cove
or the toughest hillside,
Silently as a shadow he gides away IL
he has detected your approach from a
distance. but II surprised he generally
takes one frightened look at you, then
clashes headlong through the brush. with
crash Of branches and bump Of logs and
volleys Of dirt and deadwood flung out
behind him as he digs his toes into the hill
side in his frantic haste to get away.
In the first startled i~nstantof such an en-
counter one thinks there must be twenty
bears scrambling up the hill. And IL you
should perchance get a glimpse Of the game
you will be conscious chiefly Of a pair Of
wTinkled black feet turning up and down so
rapidly that they actually seem to wink at
you through a cloud OF flying loose stuff.
That was the way in which / first met
Mooween. He was feeding peaceably on
blueberries, stufins himself Nth the ripe
fruit that tinge with blue q burned hillside,
when I came around the turn Of a deer path.
There he was, the terrible, the ferooious
beast, only three jumps away and my only
weapon was a trout rod.
We discovered each other ct the same
hair raising instant. Words cannot meas
ure the mutual CONSERVATION. Ifelt scared,
and in a moment it flashed upon me that he
looked so.
This last observation was like a breath OF
inspiration. It led me to make q demon
~stration before he should regain his wits. I
jumped forward with a flourish, and threw
my hat at him.
sBoo!' said I.
W. ---f y iii --N-
he vent up the hill in a desperate scramble,
dirt flying, logs humping, loose stones rat
Ting and the soles Of his feet twinkling CON
stantly through the volleys OF leaves and
earth and chips flung out behind him.
That first unexpected meeting killed the
fierce imagination bear Of my childhood
days deader than any rife or argument
could ave done, and convinced me that
Mooween is at heart a timid creature. Still,
this was a young bear, as was also one other
upon whom I made the same experiment
with the SAM result.
When the bear is older and bigger the
impression Ia sometimes a little different. |
In that case l have found that a good rule
Is to turn aside-never baok-unobtrusively,
Mooween to the path and to his
n devices. All wild animals have only
curiosity for the man who neither fears
nor disturbs them.
Mooween's eyes are his weak point.
They are close together. and seem to focus
on the ground a few feet in front Of his
nose. At twenty yards he can never tell,
by his eyes alone. what you are should
chance TO be standing still.
So IL you are fortunate enough to find
the ridge where he feeds daily on mast
Or sleeps away the long summer days like
q fox you have an excellent chanoe to get
4 glimpse Of him by Watching IN the lake
DR. river below. It Is necessary only to
perfectly still in your canoe among
the water grasses near shore. When near
lake a bear will almost invariably come
down about noon time to sniff carefully
al about and lap the water. and ~perchanoe
ind a dead fish before going back for his
afternoon sleep.
Four or fiv times I have sat thus in
my canoe while Mooween passed close by
and never suspected my presence until a
Shirp drew his attention. II is curious
1t such times. when there In no wind to
bring the scent TO his keen nose. 70 see him
surn his head to one side and wrinkle his
In the vain endeavor to make
,ut the curious object In the grass.
At last he rises on his hind legs and