These finding the bear "treed," rarely fail to bring him down with their rifles.

He will then, if only wounded, fight fiercely both with dogs and hunters; but it is only at such times that the black bear will contend with man; as, when not attacked by the latter, he will never attack him.

When wounded, however, or assailed by the hunter, he becomes a dangerous antagonist; and men have been dreadfully mutilated and torn on such occasions, escaping only with their lives.

Some there are who have been nearly crushed to death by his "hug." The black bear is often trapped and snared, in various ways--such as by log-traps, nooses tied to bent saplings, dead-falls, and steel-traps-- and he is thus caught much more readily than either the lynx, the fox, or the wolf.
It would be easy to fill a volume with anecdotes and adventures in which the black bear figures as the hero.

Many stories of his peculiar habits are related in the back settlements of America, some of which are true, while others partake largely of exaggeration.