His Vitality 249 



these shocks became greater and these wounds more 

 grievous. Yet I have killed well over a hundred grizzlies 

 without finding them any more tenacious of life than 

 many other wild animals. They cannot stand any more 

 punishment than the deer or the elk, and they cannot be- 

 gin to stand up under the rain of bullets that an old 

 Rocky Mountain goat will survive. 



Finally, I would suggest that it is only human nature 

 (especially when badly armed) to be more impressed 

 with the vitality of an animal which, when wounded, takes 

 the offensive, than with the vitality of one that, when 

 similarly wounded, invariably runs away. 



Of course, the question of armament is not one to be 

 lost sight of in reviewing the testimony of the early hunt- 

 ers. Their rifles were mostly smooth-bores of small 

 calibre, not larger than the present .32, carrying bullets 

 in many cases seventy to the pound, and all of them 

 were muzzle-loaders with no definite charges of powder. 

 Their penetration, variable under such circumstances, 

 was always slight as compared with the present perfected 

 weapons, and it was impossible for them to drive a ball 

 through the shoulders of a tough old grizzly or even of a 

 young one. 



Armed with such a weapon it was necessary to ap- 

 proach very near to one's quarry, the chances of killing 

 a large animal with one shot were small, and it took time 

 to reload. And the wounded grizzly was a fighter. 



Now it is really not at all distinctive of the grizzly 

 that one attacked with weapons of small range and pene- 

 tration should, even though "having five balls in the 

 lungs and other wounds," swim half-way across a river 



