Food and Feeding 219 



bodies lie until spring under the snow. During the fall 

 many are shot, and their carcasses left lying where they 

 fall. These the grizzly feeds on. In the Bitter Root 

 country, strange as it may appear, not one grizzly in fifty 

 would touch a carcass thus found. 



Farther north, in the Kootenai region, and throughout 

 the Selkirks in British Columbia, it is again true that not 

 one grizzly in a hundred will touch flesh. In the Kootenai 

 there is little game of any kind, except bears and Rocky 

 Mountain goats. In the higher Selkirks there are not even 

 fish for them to catch, since, on account of the precipitous 

 nature of the country and the number of waterfalls, the 

 creeks cannot be ascended by the fish. In these regions, 

 therefore, the grizzlies live and die vegetarians. They do, 

 however, spend much time in the late fall in travelling 

 along the higher ridges, hunting for Columbian ground 

 squirrels and whistling marmots, and digging these out of 

 their winter homes. These little animals hibernate, as do 

 the grizzlies, but they turn in earlier; and in a region where 

 they are found the bears take great delight in unearthing 

 them, and sometimes will dig out carloads of earth and 

 rocks to secure a small feast of the little fellows. This is 

 the last food the grizzly obtains before he goes into his 

 long winter sleep. 



The claws of the grizzly are well adapted for this 

 peculiar sort of work; yet, long and strong as they are, so 

 much of it does he have to do that, by the time he is ready 

 to go into winter quarters, they are worn down to the quick, 

 and not much, if any, longer than those of the black bear. 

 After his long winter's sleep, however, when he emerges 

 from his den in the spring, he is once more armed with 



