Grizzly-bear 1049 



sense of prickly heat and discomfort, the cooling, healing mud 

 of the bath furnishes a most delicious relief. 



The incidents of the sulphur bath in Wahb and the final 

 scene in Death Gulch are founded on fact. Death Gulch, on 

 the eastern side of Yellowstone Park, was examined by Pro- 

 fessor T. A. Jagger, of the United States Geological Survey, in 

 July, 1897. The deadly gas in it turned out, as was expected, 

 to be carbonic dioxide. When Professor Jagger entered the 

 valley, there was the body of an old silver-tipped Grizzly lying 

 in the quietest corner among many bones and bleaching skele- 

 tons. It had not been there many hours, and there was every 

 evidence that this was the latest victim of the poisonous 

 gas. 



The mentality of the Grizzly is far inferior to that of dog men- 

 or Wolf. But its powers of scent and hearing are so exquisite, 

 and its ability to travel fast, far, silently and unseen, so great, 

 that, once it has learned the danger of rashness, it shapes its life 

 behaviour on lines that look like profound sagacity. There 

 are, moreover, great individual variations. The stupid Griz- 

 zlies are early weeded out by the hunters, and the ten-times 

 sifted remnant are the wisest of the wise in their kind. 



It is common saying in the West that a Grizzly is a most 

 unreliable animal. You never know what it is going to do 

 next, but you may be very sure it is going to be quick about it. 



Cattle-killing Grizzlies are rare now, but undoubtedly cattle 

 exist. The following instances related to me by Edward C. 

 Russell, attorney, of Helena, Mont., shed interesting light on 

 their habits: 



About 1880, Grizzlies were very numerous in the country 

 some 60 miles south of Helena. They used to come in there 

 for the berries, but would occasionally kill cattle. When a 

 beef was thus killed, Russell used to sit up over it in a tree. 

 The Bears used to come sniffing up the wind and when 50 

 yards down from him could smell him, but when they got nearer 

 the scent seemed to go over their heads. They were puzzled 



KILLER 



