Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear. 291 



hounds, of the kinds used in the South for fox, deer, wild- 

 cat, and black bear, are but little better. I have known 

 one or two men who at different times tried to hunt the 

 grisly with a pack of hounds and fice-dogs wonted to the 

 chase of the black bear, but they never met with success, 

 This was probably largely owing to the nature of the 

 country in which they hunted, a vast tangled mass of 

 forest and craggy mountain ; but it was also due to the 

 utter inability of the dogs to stop the quarry from break- 

 ing bay when it wished. Several times a grisly was 

 bayed, but always in some inaccessible spot which it took 

 hard climbing to reach, and the dogs were never able to 

 hold the beast until the hunters came up. 



Still a well-trained pack of large hounds which were 

 both bold and cunning could doubtless bay even a grisly. 

 Such dogs are the big half-breed hounds sometimes used 

 in the Alleghanies of West Virginia, which are trained 

 not merely to nip a bear, but to grip him by the hock as 

 he runs and either throw him or twirl him round. A 

 grisly could not disregard a wary and powerful hound 

 capable of performing this trick, even though he paid 

 small heed to mere barking and occasional nipping. Nor 

 do I doubt that it would be possible to get together a 

 pack of many large, fierce dogs, trained to dash straight 

 at the head and hold on like a vice, which could fairly 

 master a grisly and, though unable, of course, to kill him, 

 would worry him breathless and hold him down so that he 

 could be slain with ease. There have been instances in 

 which five or six of the big so-called blood-hounds of the 

 southern States — not pure blood-hounds at all, but huge, 



