American Big-Game Hunting 



Let me say that the danger and ferocity of 

 the bear is, I think, very much over-stated, yet 

 there is just enough of the element of danger 

 to make the pursuit of this animal exciting. 

 Naturalists do not now apparently recognize 

 more than two varieties of bear in the Rocky 

 Mountains ; that is, they class the cinnamon, 

 silver-tip, and grizzly as grizzly bear. The 

 other variety, of course, is the black bear. I 

 am by no means sure that the grizzly bear 

 will not be further subdivided after careful 

 comparisons of collections of skulls. 



Much has been said and written about the 

 size and weight of the grizzly bear, and in 

 most instances this has been mere guess- 

 work. Lewis and Clark made frequent men- 

 tion of this animal, and yet their estimates of 

 the weight fall far below that of other 

 writers. Only a few instances have come 

 to my knowledge where the weight has been 

 ascertained absolutely. A good-sized grizzly 

 killed in Yellowstone Park one summer by 

 Wilson, the Government scout, weighed six 

 hundred pounds. Colonel Pickett, who has 

 a neighboring ranch to mine, and who has 

 killed more bears than any man I know of, 

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