86 Hunting the Grisly 



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

 houndsof the Southern States not pure blood 

 hounds at all, but huge, fierce, ban-dogs, with 

 a cross of the ferocious Cuban bloodhound, 

 to give them good scenting powers have by 

 themselves mastered the cougar and the black 

 bear. Such instances occurred in the hunting 

 history of my own forefathers on my mother s 

 side, who during the last half of the eigh 

 teenth, and the first half of the present, century 

 lived in Georgia and over the border in what 

 are now Alabama and Florida. These big 

 dogs can only overcome such foes by rushing 

 in in a body and grappling all together; if they 

 hang back, lunging and snapping, a cougar or 

 bear will destroy them one by one. With a 

 quarry so huge and redoubtable as the grisly, 

 no number of dogs, however large and fierce, 

 could overcome him unless they all rushed on 

 him in a mass, the first in the charge seizing 

 by the head or throat. If the dogs hung back, 

 or if there were only a few of them, or if they 

 did not seize around the head, they would be 

 destroyed without an effort. It is murder to 

 slip merely one or two close-quarter dogs at a 

 grisly. Twice I have known a man take a 

 large bulldog with his pack when after one of 

 these big bears and in each case the result 



