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[Illustration: HOW I TUMBLED DOWNHILL.]




  THE LIFE STORY OF
  A BLACK BEAR


  BY
  H. PERRY ROBINSON


  LONDON
  ADAM·&·CHARLES·BLACK
  1913




FOREWORD


There is always tragedy when man invades the solitudes of the earth,
for his coming never fails to mean the destruction of the wild
things. But, surely, nowhere can the pathos be greater than when,
in the western part of North America, there is a discovery of new
gold-diggings. Then from all points of the compass men come pouring
into the mountains with axe and pick, gold-pan and rifle, breaking
paths through the forest wildernesses, killing and driving before them
the wild animals that have heretofore held the mountains for their own.

Here in these rocky, tree-clad fastnesses the bears have kinged it for
centuries, ruling in right of descent for generation after generation,
holding careless dominion over the coyote and the beaver, the wapiti,
the white-tailed and the mule-eared deer. Except for the occasional
rebellion of a mutinous lieutenant of a puma, there has been none to
dispute their lordship from year to year and century to century. Each
winter they have laid themselves down (or sat themselves up--for a bear
does not lie down when hibernating) to sleep through the bitter months,
in easy assurance that