those on either hand, by hallooing; our shouts, of course, intended also to attract the attention of the lost youngster. After pursuing our way for nearly a couple of hours, (the woods being still more difficult to traverse by night than by day,) we descried a light, much brighter than that of any lantern; and as we approached it, a voice was heard replying to our hallooing, while, at the same time, we could distinctly see the flickering flames of a large fire. On approaching it still closer, we beheld young Fred, upon the trunk of a prostrate tree, as close to the fire as he could possibly sit without being scorched. From what he related to me, it appeared that after the line was formed in the morning, and had continued to advance for a short time, he came in contact with so impenetrable a thicket, that, after vainly attempting to force his way through it, he was compelled to retrace his steps. The time he lost in this fruitless endeavour, had left him in the rear of the line; and, although he heard faint blasts of the hunters' horns, he met with further difficulties in his advance, and presently heard no more of them. He presumed, afterwards, that he had kept too much to the right; and although he occasionally fell in with footsteps, he was not able to make out which way the parties had been going, owing to the great depth of snow and its extreme lightness. He had also heard several reports of guns, but at so great a distance that he gave up all thoughts of reaching the quarter from whence they proceeded.

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Being provided with an apparatus for striking a light, he had selected a place where there seemed to be plenty of dry and decayed timber. He next lighted a fire, and, having ate a portion of his small stock of provisions, proceeded to make a collection of fuel, consisting of hemlock and pine bark, and such limbs and branches of trees as came within his reach. He had built up his fire against a tall dead pine tree, fifty feet of the lower portion of which was in a blaze when we discovered him. After lighting his fire, it was his intention to proceed in the direction in which he supposed my dwelling to lie; but, as the day was advancing, he became fearful of making the experiment, and ultimately resolved to abide by his pine-tree, taking the chance of being fallen in with by the hunters on their homeward route, and if that

should not happen, to remain where he was until the next morning, when he would watch the rising of the sun, and set out with the whole day before him. During the afternoon, some deer had approached him within half-rifle distance, but he had floundered in the snow so much that his rifle was rendered useless. He assured me that he never felt alarmed at his situation; and he was of opinion that he could have passed the night by his fire without suffering any peculiar discomfort or inconvenience. This, however, I very much doubt; for, although he had contrived to keep himself tolerably warm during the day, when his time had been principally occupied in collecting fuel, I doubt his being able to keep himself awake during the latter part of the night; for, in addition to fatigue, the increase of cold would have a tendency to produce drowsiness; and, if once he had suffered sleep to overpower him, that sleep would have been his last.

"Fred., however, has lived to be a keen and expert woodsman; and few young men among the whole range of the Alleghany Mountains are more adventurous hunters, or can use a rifle with a more deadly aim than himself."

BEAR HUNTING

IN THE SOUTHERN AND SOUTHWESTERN STATES.

H. J. P., Esq., of Sicily Island, Louisiana, has given us the following interesting account of "Bears and Bear Hunting," which covers the whole ground :

"In Louisiana we have but one variety of the bear tribe, which is the common black bear, ('Nisus Americanus.') This animal, when fully developed, weighs from two to five hundred pounds, gross weight. The females usually weigh from two to three hundred pounds. When fat, and a full grown old he,' as the hunters term him-a full grown old cuffey,' which is also a familiar term with us-occasionally weighs upwards of five hundred pounds, when very fat. When in this condition he will have

a coat of fat five inches in thickness, between the skin and muscles, on his flanks. They are as black as a raven, save a small white spot which some of them have on the breast. This spot is usually of the shape of a diamond. When a bear is very lean, the tips of his hair occasionally have a dingy brown cast.

"Some of the hunters suppose him to be a migratory animal, that travels to the north in the spring, and returns again in the fall season to roam over our immense wilds of the great Mississippi swamps. Others, again, are of a different opinion. We are inclined to the latter opinion, and are under the impression that the former has been obtained by some in consequence of the bears being apparently much more numerous in the fall and winter, than in the summer months. In the fall season they ramble about very much, in quest of persimmon, marsh and white oak acorns, which is their favourite kind of food; and in passing we will remark, that there are seventeen species of the 'Genus Quercus' in Louisiana: several varieties growing on land that is subject to an occasional inundation, and several other varieties entirely distinct, growing on our uplands. They are also very fond of pecans, and wherever they find these descriptions of mast in abundance, they collect in great numbers. Hence the opinion that they come from a great distance, when, in fact, they have only collected in a small district of country, in consequence of the abundance of their favourite mast. In support of the latter opinion, we know that many of them have their cubs here, and if some of them do migrate, we know positively that many of them do not; for the same individual bear has been known to remain in a favourite cane-brake for several years in succession. Some of them may emigrate, possibly, as they are great travellers, beyond all dispute; for I have seen them killed with their claws worn away very much by constant travellingthe bottom of their feet also much worn, and the bear quite lean. They subsist in the spring and summer months on the great variety of grasses which abound here-some varieties blooming in the winter-some in the spring, and others in the summer months. They will eat young cane, which is as tender as asparagus; the wild potatoe and almost any thing of the vegetable kind. They are fond of such bugs and worms as are usually found under old

sert.

rotten logs, and they occasionally eat a hog by the way of a deThe bear is notoriously fond of honey. He occasionally finds a bee-tree, and if he can get his paw into the honey he makes clean work of it.

"The females usually have their cubs not oftener than once in two years. The female, when with young, continues in her usual habits till about the first of February, when she is quite fat; at this time she seeks some large hollow cypress tree that has been dismantled by a storm, or some large limb some forty or fifty feet from the earth. Through this hole she gets into the tree and descends to the bottom, where she has her young-most commonly two or three in number, which, at birth, are about the size of a Norway rat, and perfectly destitute of hair. The mother does not leave them for six or eight weeks; she takes neither food nor water, and in fact remains in a state of hibernation till her young are about two months old, when she leaves them to feed in the neigh.. bourhood; and as soon as they are able to follow her she takes them to a cane-brake, and continues to suckle them for a considerable time; in fact they do not part with their mother until they are upwards of a year old. The bears of Louisiana do not go into a state of hibernation, with the exception of the females that are with young.

"A bear has his bed in the midst of a cane-brake, at a point that is most convenient to his watering place and to his feeding ground. His bed is sometimes nothing but some leaves of trees that he has raked together. At other times, particularly in wet weather, it is composed of the tops of the cane, which he bends down and bites off; he lies in one bed until a heavy rain, when he invariably moves to some other part of the cane-brake and makes a new bed. It is a singular fact in relation to the bear, that he invariably changes his range after every heavy rain. The male bear has a habit in the summer months, from July to September, of biting a particular tree that is generally in an open space near the cane-brake, where he lies; it appears that each tries to bite the tree as high up as he can reach, probably intimating to some rival his size and power. In doing this, they usually stand on their hind legs with their bellies next the tree, as the prints of their claws on the bark clearly prove. This,

however, is not always the case; for sometimes they stand with their backs against the tree-the impressions of their feet in an occasional soft place of earth, prove this beyond doubt. We have frequently endeavoured to assign some reason for this singular characteristic. Possibly, as Audubon supposes, it is done for the purpose of sharpening their teeth. No doubt but the same innate feeling that in the love season causes the buck to scrape the earth with his fore feet and rub the bark off of some little tree standing hard by-the same state of excitement that causes the bull to tear up the earth and rub his horns in the ground, causes the also bear to imprint his teeth in a tree, which is usually a pine or a cypress; it is probably intended, like the crowing of a cock, to challenge a competition to mortal combat. This marking of a tree may be termed the hieroglyphics of the bear tribe; for one of these scratches has a very significant meaning, and I should like to know why our bears have not a right to communicate their ideas by characters, as well as the builders of the Pyramids? If these characters were to be translated by a limb of the law, they would probably read somewhat after this style: Know all bears by these presents, that I, the Big Bear of this range, by the authority vested in my teeth and claws, and for divers good considerations, more particularly known to myself; and furthermore, in consideration of my might,' (which mankind as well as myself usually at the end of the law translate 'right') do hereby issue this, my only proclamation, to all other bears of the male sex, whether squatters, sojourners, rounders, or loafers-you are hereby commanded to leave these 'diggins' forthwith, under the penalty of my severe displeasure, and if you do not, you will be separately and singly, collectively and jointly, catawampously and tetotaciously 'chawed' up.

"The usual feeding time of the bear, as well as of the deer, is at night, particularly if the moon gives light; but during very dark nights they feed early in the morning, and late in the evening, and in the fore part of the night. The bear usually goes to his watering place between three o'clock in the evening and sun-set-he has a path to his feeding ground and another to his watering-place, which is usually a small bayou, or a puddle of water, under the root of a forest tree, that has been rooted up by