A Photographic Expedition 143 



mented to that end. The most favorable time to operate 

 being between sundown and dark, it was impracticable 

 to set up a camera and leave the lens open and provide for 

 the exploding of a flash when the bear came along, and I 

 therefore set about perfecting an electrical device which 

 at the same time would explode the flash and spring the 

 shutter of the camera. My first idea was to have this 

 apparatus operated by the bear himself, and to that end 

 I constructed it so that the trigger could be tripped by 

 pressure applied to a fine thread or wire, which could be 

 stretched across the trail; but though I soon succeeded in 

 getting this mechanism to work well at home, actual 

 practice in the field developed a succession of difficulties 

 which had to be overcome little by little, and as field trials 

 were scarce and expensive, it took me a long time to ar- 

 rive at satisfactory results. 



By the time my camera was in working order, the bears 

 on which I had expected to use it were all but things of the 

 past; and having heard for a number of years that the 

 grizzlies of the Yellowstone National Park had become 

 comparatively tame, and that it was no difficult task to 

 photograph them, and having hunted grizzlies in all the 

 country round the park without finding the bears there 

 different from what they were in other parts of the country, 

 I determined to take my camera to the park and study the 

 grizzly in this field. This was in 1906. 



I was armed with a permit from Major Pitcher, the 

 acting superintendent, which allowed me to photograph 

 and study the grizzlies, provided I did not molest them in 

 any way. I went first to the Grand Canon. I found 

 there quite a number of grizzlies feeding in the evening at 



