Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear. 287 



battles follow, so that many of the old males have their 

 heads seamed with scars made by their fellows' teeth. At 

 such times they are evil tempered and prone to attack 

 man or beast on slight provocation. 



The she brings forth her cubs, one, two, or three in 

 number, in her winter den. They are very small and 

 helpless things, and it is some time after she leaves her 

 winter home before they can follow her for any distance. 

 They stay with her throughout the summer and the fall, 

 leaving her when the cold weather sets in. By this time 

 they are well grown ; and hence, especially if an old male 

 has joined the she, the family may number three or four 

 individuals, so as to make what seems like quite a little 

 troop of bears. A small ranchman who lived a dozen 

 miles from me on the Little Missouri once found a she- 

 bear and three half-grown cubs feeding at a berry-patch in 

 a ravine. He shot the old she in the small of the back, 

 whereat she made a loud roaring and squealing. One of 

 the cubs rushed towards her ; but its sympathy proved 

 misplaced, for she knocked it over with a hearty cuff, 

 either out of mere temper, or because she thought her 

 pain must be due to an unprovoked assault from one of 

 her offspring. The hunter then killed one of the cubs, 

 and the other two escaped. When bears are together and 

 one is wounded by a bullet, but does not see the real 

 assailant, it often falls tooth and nail upon its comrade, 

 apparently attributing its injury to the latter. 



Bears are hunted in many ways. Some are killed by 

 poison ; but this plan is only practised by the owners of 

 cattle or sheep who have suffered from their ravages. 



