21 8 The Grizzly Bear 



that part of the Bitter Root Mountains known as the 

 Clearwater country, in Idaho. First, in the early spring, 

 he eats the tender shoots of grass that he finds on the hill- 

 sides having a southern exposure, and for some little time 

 this constitutes his sole sustenance. He then seeks the 

 streams, where for nearly a month he fishes for salmon. 

 He is, as we have already seen, a deft fisherman, but at 

 this time of year he is not as successful as when the later 

 runs of salmon appear, when the water is lower and 

 clearer. However, for some weeks he manages to live on 

 his catches. After the salmon run is over, he again be- 

 takes himself to the hills, where he turns over rocks and 

 dead trees, tears up stumps, rips open logs, and overhauls 

 things generally, hunting for ants, grubs, and any larvae 

 that he can find to eat. These suffice him until the berries 

 are ripe, and after the berry harvest is garnered he turns 

 to the autumn run of salmon. The fish now supply his 

 larder abundantly for another month, and then he once 

 more seeks the sidehills and forages for any stray grubs or 

 ants that were fortunate enough to escape his first cam- 

 paign. Such is the bill of fare of the grizzly throughout 

 the Bitter Roots. 



Let us now turn to the same animal a few hundred 

 miles away in the mountains of northern Wyoming. 

 Here the grizzly does not dig to any great extent for roots, 

 nor is he the confirmed grass and fish eater that he is in the 

 Bitter Roots; but, aside from the berries that all grizzlies 

 love, and the ants and grubs that they never refuse, he is, 

 spring and fall, very decidedly carnivorous. In this 

 Wyoming region there are thousands of head of elk and 

 other game. During the winter many perish, and their 



