Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear 69 



prowess of the grisly, in the thick wet forests 

 of the high northern Rockies, where both 

 beasts dwell. An old hunter who a dozen 

 years ago wintered at Jackson Lake, in north 

 western Wyoming, told me that when the 

 snows got deep on the mountains the moose 

 came down and took up their abode near the 

 lake, on its western side. Nothing molested 

 them during the winter. Early in the spring 

 a grisly came out of its den, and he found its 

 tracks in many places, as it roamed restlessly 

 about, evidently very hungry. Finding little 

 to eat in the bleak, snow-drifted woods, it soon 

 began to depredate the moose, and killed 

 two or three, generally by lying in wait and 

 dashing out on them as they passed near its 

 lurking-place. Even the bulls were at that 

 season weak, and of course hornless, with 

 small desire to fight; and in each case the rush 

 of the great bear doubtless made with the 

 ferocity and speed which so often belie the 

 seeming awkwardness of the animal bore 

 down the startled victim, taken utterly un 

 awares before it had a chance to defend itself. 

 In one case the bear had missed its spring; 

 the moose going off, for a few rods, with huge 

 jumps, and then settling down into its char 

 acteristic trot. The old hunter who followed 



