Conclusion 267 



with the psychology of the observer. I have put down 

 my experiences with candor, and I have advanced my 

 beliefs without meaning to dogmatize. 



One word I would like to say about shooting. I am 

 the last one, although I myself have had my fill of it, to 

 decry the pursuit of the hunter, but if one wishes really to 

 study an animal let him go without a gun: he will learn 

 more about him in one season than he will in a lifetime 

 of hunting to kill. One reason for this is that when one is 

 shooting one will take the first opportunity that is offered 

 to shoot, and this, of course, ends the chances of observa- 

 tion so far as that animal goes. But there is another con- 

 sideration. It is only when an animal is wholly at ease, 

 unconscious of one's presence, that one sees him as he 

 really is. Then, and then only, do we catch those intimate 

 glimpses and chance views that admit us, as it were, to a 

 knowledge of his home life and to an understanding of the 

 character that underlies his company manners. And 

 my experience has left no doubt in my mind but what 

 there is some kind of telepathy between man and brute 

 as well as between man and man; and that an inter- 

 ested but sympathetic watcher can remain unnoticed 

 where the presence of a hostile one might breed uneasi- 

 ness, if not suspicion, in the mind of an animal. 



Finally, I have dwelt so much upon the difference 

 between the grizzly of popular imagination and the real 

 grizzly of the wilds, that it may possibly appear that my 

 traffic with this magnificent animal has not left me one 

 of his admirers. As a matter of fact nothing could be 

 farther from the truth. 



First and last I have hunted and killed all the big 



