James Capen Adams 39 



black and grizzly bears, took them to Portland and 

 shipped them to the East; one undertaken in the early 

 spring of 1854 to the Yosemite Valley; and one later in 

 the same year across the Sierra Nevada and to Salt Lake 

 City. These expeditions brought him into contact with 

 the grizzly throughout the greater part of its range in 

 what is now the United States, and he recognizes and 

 comments upon the distinction between the grizzlies of 

 California and those of the North. The grizzly, he says, 

 is "the monarch of American beasts, and, in many re- 

 spects, the most formidable animal in the world to be 

 encountered. In comparison with the lion of Africa and 

 the tiger of Asia, though these may exhibit more activity 

 and bloodthirstiness, the grizzly is not second in courage, 

 and excels them in power. Like the regions which he in- 

 habits, there is a vastness in his strength which makes him 

 a fit companion for the monster trees and rocks of the 

 Sierras, and places him, if not the first, at least in the first 

 rank of all quadrupeds." 



Again he says: "There are several varieties of the 

 grizzly bear; or, to speak more properly, perhaps, the 

 species has a wide range, extending to the British posses- 

 sions on the north, to New Mexico on the south, and from 

 the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 

 Ocean. His size, general appearance, and character vary 

 with the part of this great region in which he is found; 

 for, although courageous and ferocious in the Rocky 

 Mountains, he is there neither so large nor so terrible as 

 in the Sierra Nevadas, where he attains his greatest size 

 and strength. The grizzly of the Rocky Mountains sel- 

 dom, if ever, reaches the weight of a thousand pounds; 



