FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 271 



lazy, and after a short time he stopped digging and ambled over 

 to a shallow stream near my place of concealment. He splashed 

 noisily through the stream and ran through some shallow riffles 

 where he seized two or three of the swarming salmon with his 

 teeth. 



In some streams there were deep pools that showed claw marks 

 on the bottoms and sides far underwater. Evidently, these 

 marks were made by bears that were fishing, but the method of 

 capturing salmon in such places was not observed. 



In autumn, when berries ripen, a new food supply becomes 

 available. On Unimak Island, the bears then seek the salmon- 

 berry thickets and feed on the ripe fruit. Many other berries are 

 eaten also. Osgood (1904) mentions crowberry (Empetrum 

 nigrum), which are eaten in "great quantities," and various 

 species of Vaccinium. There were indications that roots and grass 

 are eaten in the fall, and it was reported that bears occasionally 

 are seen on the beach, where they probably would eat anything 

 edible that had washed ashore. 



Bears are always on the lookout for carrion. Some caribou 

 carcasses appeared to have been eaten by bears, but there was 

 no indication that the brown bear will kill caribou under normal 

 circumstances. 



A striking feature of the brown-bear country is the character- 

 istic bear trail. In marshy ground, the bear trail forms a well- 

 marked path, in which a man can sink to the ankles. But on firm 

 ground, on the higher mossy tundra, the trail consists of two well- 

 defined ruts with a high center. In one instance, where the trail 

 led over a slight embankment, the ruts had been worn so deeply 

 that the bear's chest had rubbed on the high hump between the 

 ruts. The bear had literally "high-centered." 



One often finds a trail in which individual footprints are pre- 

 served. Each bear has carefully stepped in the tracks of his 

 predecessors until the well-worn trail becomes a zig-zag series 

 of holes. It was only with great effort that I could step far 

 enough to walk in these tracks. This type of trail was usually 

 found in the vicinity of a large boulder, where a bear was ac- 

 customed to lurk, or where the trail led to a den or some other 

 local point of interest. The trails with uniform ruts generally 

 extended for long distances. 



Occasionally, an abandoned trail is evidenced by clumps of 

 grass that have found a foothold in the disturbed ground in 

 each footstep. Griggs (1922) mentions an interesting bear trail 

 in the volcanic ash of Katmai, in which drifting grass seeds had 

 lodged and taken root in the individual footprints. 



