This bear we will label for convenience _Ursus Californiensis_, because the title of _Ursus Americanus_ has dignified the small black bear of the Eastern states. There are, however, three species of the black bear in California that are known, and there may be more. The large black bear of California reaches very large proportions. I have seen some that might weigh from 800 to 1,000 pounds. It is hunted for its fur, which is uniform in color, and for its flesh, which is quite good, either smoked or fresh. This animal will never seek an encounter with man. I remember my original introduction to a bear of this species. It was in the state of Washington. Owing to ill health I had been staying at what is known there as a ranch. A ranch in the western Washington forests generally consists of a shake hut or log house, and a promise by the "rancher" that he will soon clear enough ground to raise _something_. Generally this vague something is a mortgage. This particular rancher had a cow, and this cow often strayed away into the timber and had to be looked after when milking time came. One day, in the exuberance of new found health, I was taking the greatest of pleasure in chasing that cow toward the "shed" road to the ranch. I was feeling especially good, and I was jumping over fallen trees, making short cuts and throwing broken branches and an occasional stone at the old Jersey. Suddenly I stopped before an extra high log, and gathering myself together, I jumped high over it. I landed upon the upturned belly of an old she bear. There was a sound like the escape of gas from a rubber bag. I passed the cow like a streak of lightning. When I had run a considerable distance I turned my head and saw the bear running in the opposite direction. I did not stop, however, and I got to the ranch nearly an hour before the old cow. In the shingle mills of the North the Norwegian hands have the same veneration for the bear as the Indian. They always speak of him not as a bear, but as "the old man with the fur coat on." VI. QUAINT INDIAN LORE IN REGARD TO THE MYSTICAL POWER OF THE BEAR AS A GREAT MEDICINE. This is a legend of the Ojibwa Indians as told by Sikassige, the officiating priest of the Ojibwas at White Earth, Minnesota: In the beginning were created two men and two women. They had no power of thought or reason. Then the Almighty took them into his hands that they might multiply, and he made them reasonable beings. He paired them, and from this sprung the Indians. Then when there were people the Great Spirit placed them upon the earth; but he soon observed that they were subject to sickness, misery and death. Then the Manitou called upon the Sun Spirit (the Bear) and asked him to instruct the people in the Sacred Medicine. The Sun Spirit, in the form of a little boy, went to the earth and was adopted by a woman who had a little boy of her own.