284 THE, POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



almost white. The head is covered with short, brown hair ; the ears 

 are short, and the depression between the brow and the muzzle con- 

 siderable. The head is much larger in proportion to the size of the 

 body than in other bears ; and its feet, also, with the single exception 

 of the polar bear, in which there obtains a still larger proportion. 

 His haunts are the Rocky Mountains and the plains eastward ; he is 

 also commonly found westward, and as far north as latitude 61. His 

 principal food is flesh ; but fruits and other vegetable substances also 

 form a part of his diet. The younger animals are tree-climbing, but 

 the older are not, seemingly, from their great weight. The pregnant 

 female and the young animals hibernate, but the full-grown males are 

 as active in winter as at other seasons. 



The grizzly is the most ferocious and terrible of all American ani- 

 mals. He exercises absolute terrorism over every living creature that 

 comes in his way. It is said that even the hungry wolf will flee at 

 the sight of his track, and no animal will venture to touch a deer that 

 has been killed and left by him. His strength is such that, even the 

 powerful bison falls an easy prey, and a single blow from one of his 

 paws has been known to remove the entire scalp from a man's head. 

 He is the only member of his family that will venture to attack man 

 unchallenged, but it is said that he will retreat at the scent of a man, 

 if he can do so unobserved. He has attributed to him a peculiar 

 habit, of digging a pit for his fallen prey, in which he covers it over 



Fig. 2. Black Bear (Ursi/s Americanus). 



with leaves and rubbish. Hunters, knowing this habit, have saved 

 their lives in desperate cases by feigning death without wounding the 

 bear, escape being made while the latter is continuing 4iis ramble in 

 search of other prey. He is so tenacious of life that, unless shot 

 through the heart or brain, his body may be riddled with bullets 

 without fatal effect. One which had received two bullets through his 

 heart, besides eight in other parts of his body, survived more than 

 twenty minutes, and swam half a mile. The grizzly is not easily 

 tamed unless captured at a very tender age, but even then he is rough 

 in habits and dangerous as a pet. 



