The demand for their skins caused them to be much hunted since that event; and of course they are growing less numerous every day.

The fur companies during the last hundred years have obtained thousands upon thousands of their skins both from white and Indian hunters.

There are still many of these animals found in wild, unsettled parts; and even in the old and long-inhabited states they are occasionally met with in secluded and mountainous districts.

You would wonder that they have not been extirpated long ago--being such large creatures, easily discovered and easily tracked; besides, it is always an ambition with the settlers and amateur-hunters to kill them.
Moreover, but two cubs are produced at a litter, and that only happens once a-year.

The fact is, that during winter, when the snow is on the ground and the bear might be easily tracked and destroyed, he does not show himself, but lies torpid in his den--which is either a cave in the rocks or a hollow tree.