66 Hunting the Grisly 



being far less wary and more helpless. Its 

 heaviness and clumsiness do not fit it well for 

 a life of rapine against shy woodland crea 

 tures. Its vast strength and determined tem 

 per, however, more than make amends for 

 lack of agility in the actual struggle with the 

 stricken prey; its difficulty lies in seizing, not 

 in killing, the game. Hence, when a grisly 

 does take to game-killing, it is likely to attack 

 bison, moose, and elk; it is rarely able to 

 catch deer, still less sheep or antelope. In 

 fact these smaller game animals often show 

 but little dread of its neighborhood, and, 

 though careful not to let it come too near, go 

 on grazing when a bear is in full sight. 

 Whitetail deer are frequently found at home 

 in the same thicket in which a bear has its 

 den, while they immediately desert the tem 

 porary abiding place of a wolf or cougar. 

 Nevertheless, they sometimes presume too 

 much on this confidence. A couple of years 

 before the occurrence of the feats of cattle- 

 killing mentioned above as happening near 

 my ranch, either the same bear that figured in 

 them, or another of similar tastes, took to 

 game-hunting. The beast lived in the same 

 succession of huge thickets which cover for 

 two or three miles the river bottoms and the 



