718 I'llOfELDlSa^ OF TILE SATIOSAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii 



[K).sts on Upper Peace River gave 35 skins of the bears designated 

 above. The adjoining district of New Caledonia, on the west side of 

 the Rockies, also contributed a certain number of skins of this species 

 to each year's London sales. Mr. Moberl}^ who spent several years 

 in British Columbia, says that he was credilily informed that many 

 years ago grizzly bears were occasionally met with in the Pas Moun- 

 tain of Cumberland District and amid the Touchwood Hills of Maiii- 

 t()})a; l)ut such is not the case now. He further says: 



TluM-e seems to me to be a different species in the Roeky Mountains. They are 

 much hi)'^er tlian any other grizzly bears seen on either side. Their color is lighter 

 and they have a whitish mane, and are nuich more ferocious, but not so numerous aS 

 the others. Indian hunters readily attack the latter; few, however, will willingly 

 venture on a contest with the Mountain King unless the chances are very favorable. 



It is also on record that the grizzly ])ear, as well as the black bear, 

 were not unconnnon to the eastward and in certain other wooded 

 sections of the Red River Valley at the end of the eighteenth and 

 beginning of the nineteenth century. 



RICHARDSON'S BARREN GROUND BEAR. 



Ursus richdnlKoni Swainscjn. 



This bear is not luicommon in the Barren (Irounds of the Anderson 

 region lior on the polar shores of Fi'anklin Bay, where, apart from a 

 few exported skins, we annually secured during our tive ^^ears' sojourn 

 at Fort Anderson one or two examples, with the skulls and skeletons 

 suital)le for nmseiun purposes. The characteristic disposition of this 

 rather formidable animal ma}' be fairly judged fronj the following 

 experience: In the end of July, 1S62, an Indian brought in the skin, 

 skull, and leg-l)ones of a medium-sized male, which he shot in the 

 Barren Grounds northeast of the post. He informed us that as soon 

 as the bear perceived him, it at once advanced toward him, and when 

 at a few 3'ards distance, he fired at and killed it. On the 8th of the 

 same month an Eskimo secured a large male on the east side of the 

 lower Anderson, a))out 50 miles north of the fort. The first shot 

 struck and broke one of its hind legs, which greatly angered the bear, 

 which fiercely pursued its assailant, but a second ))all fortunately laid 

 it low in rather close proximity to his person. Again, on June 80, 

 1863, a member of our Indian collecting party succeeded in killing a 

 ver}' large male on the shores of Franklin Bay. From a high and 

 narrow shelving ridge near the head of a deep ravine, he observed 

 the bear at some distance below, and in order to attract its attention 

 he began to whistle and throw stones at it, nnich to master bruin's dis- 

 gust, and it immediately started to ascend to where the Indian from 

 his chosen vantage ground stood prepare^d to receive it. Aftei- per- 

 mitting it to approach within 10 or 12 feet he fired at and mortally 



