CHAPTER II .-- THE BLACK BEAR.
Next to the whitetail deer the black bear is the commonest and most widely distributed of American big game.

It is still found quite plentifully in northern New England, in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and along the entire length of the Alleghanies, as well as in the swamps and canebrakes of the southern States.

It is also common in the great forests of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and throughout the Rocky Mountains and the timbered ranges of the Pacific coast.

In the East it has always ranked second only to the deer among the beasts of chase.

The bear and the buck were the staple objects of pursuit of all the old hunters.