Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear. 267 



imaginative members of the " old hunter " variety in 

 ascribing wildly various traits to these different bears. 

 One comments on the superior prowess of the roach- 

 back ; the explanation being that a bear in early spring 

 is apt to be ravenous from hunger. The next insists that 

 the California grisly is the only really dangerous bear ; 

 while another stoutly maintains that it does not compare 

 in ferocity with what he calls the " smaller " silver-tip or 

 cinnamon. And so on, and so on, without end. All of 

 which is mere nonsense. 



Nevertheless, it is no easy task to determine how many 

 species or varieties of bear actually do exist in the United 

 States, and I cannot even say without doubt that a very 

 large set of skins and skulls would not show a nearly com- 

 plete intergradation between the most widely separated 

 individuals. However, there are certainly two very dis- 

 tinct types, which differ almost as widely from each other 

 as a wapiti does from a mule deer, and which exist in the 

 same localities in most heavily timbered portions of the 

 Rockies. One is the small black bear, a bear which will 

 average about two hundred pounds weight, with fine, 

 glossy, black fur, and the fore-claws but little longer than 

 the hinder ones ; in fact the hairs of the fore-paw often 

 reach to their tips. This bear is a tree climber. It is the 

 only kind found east of the great plains, and it is also 

 plentiful in the forest-clad portions of the Rockies, being 

 common in most heavily timbered tracts throughout the 

 United States. The other is the grisly, which weighs 

 three or four times as much as the black, and has a pelt of 

 coarse hair, which is in color gray, grissled, or brown of 



