XXI 



HIS FIERCENESS 



WE are now arrived at a division of our subject 

 where we are to meet what, at first sight, appears 

 to be a tangle of contradictory evidence, and it behooves 

 us to walk slowly, to preserve an open mind, and to keep 

 our eyes carefully attentive to the signs of the trail. On 

 the one hand, we shall find the sincere convictions and 

 repeated statements of early writers, and a century of 

 unquestioning belief on the part of the public. On the 

 other, we shall find the calmer judgments of trained ob- 

 servers, and the overwhelming weight of contempora- 

 neous experience. Were our fathers wrong about the 

 nature of the grizzly .? Or has the animal radically 

 changed in a hundred years .? 



Personally, I believe that we have to answer "Yes" 

 to both questions; but I am convinced that the amount 

 of alteration in the nature of the grizzly is insignificant 

 compared to the extent to which preconceptions of early 

 hunters colored their judgment. 



Let me say, to begin with, that twenty-five years of 

 intercourse with these beasts has taught me to regard them 

 with the most profound respect. I would no more pro- 

 voke one, unarmed, or rashly venture upon any action 

 that my experience has taught me they regard as calling 



229 



