268 The Grizzly Bear 



game of this continent south of the Barren Grounds and 

 Alaska. Later, as the years passed and I became less 

 enamoured of killing, I have been interested in the study 

 of these animals, one and all. There is, indeed, no form 

 of life in the open that is not beautiful, and I am not 

 ashamed to own that I have spent many happy and silent 

 hours watching the humblest of them. But not only as a 

 sportsman did my interest in the grizzly survive the dis- 

 covery that all my early and romantic ideas about him 

 were ill-founded, but, as a student, I have steadily added 

 to my admiration for him. 



He is the one wild animal of our wilderness that owns 

 no natural over-lord. With the exception of man he 

 deigns to recognize no enemy. And if he is not, as he 

 was once thought, the bloodthirsty and tyrranous auto- 

 crat of his vast domain, he is none the less its master. 

 If, in sober truth, he is less terrible than he was painted, 

 he only loses interest and dignity in the eyes of those 

 whom fear alone impresses. 



In short, just as the grizzly was in the beginning the 

 lure that drew me to the wilderness, so now, to my mind, 

 he remains the grandest animal our country knows. 



