Junior High School Literature, Book 1Elson, William H. (William Harris)
General
Junior High School Literature, Book 1
Elson, William H. (William Harris)
American literature; English literature; Readers
Nevertheless, it is no easy task to determine how many species or
varieties of bear actually do exist in the United States, and I cannot
even say without doubt that a very large set of skins and skulls would
not show a nearly complete intergradation between the most widely
separated individuals. However, there are certainly two very distinct
types, which differ almost as widely from each other as a wapiti does
from a mule deer, and which exist in the same localities in most heavily
timbered portions of the Rockies. One is the small black bear, a bear
which will average about two hundred pounds weight, with fine, glossy,
black fur, and the foreclaws but little longer than the hinder ones;
in fact, the hairs of the forepaw often reach to their tips. This bear
is a tree climber. It is the only kind found east of the great plains,
and it is also plentiful in the forest-clad portions of the Rockies,
being common in most heavily timbered tracts throughout the United
States. The other is the grizzly, which weighs three or four times as
much as the black, and has a pelt of coarse hair, which is in color
gray, grizzled, or brown of various shades. It is not a tree climber,
and the foreclaws are very long, much longer than the hinder ones. It
is found from the great plains west of the Mississippi to the Pacific
coast. This bear inhabits indifferently lowland and mountain; the deep
woods and the barren plains where the only cover is the stunted growth
fringing the streams. These two types are very distinct in every way,
and their differences are not at all dependent upon mere geographical
considerations; for they are often found in the same district. Thus I
found them both in the Bighorn Mountains, each type being in extreme
form, while the specimens I shot showed no trace of intergradation.
The huge, grizzled, long-clawed beast, and its little, glossy-coated,
short-clawed, tree-climbing brother roamed over exactly the same country
in those mountains; but they were as distinct in habits, and mixed as
little together as moose and caribou.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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