THE BEARS 



117 



as far as Mexico, is a rare animal now. Its turn for cattle-killing made the ranchmen poison it, 

 and rendered the task an easy one. It is now only found in the Northern Rocky Mountains, and 

 perhaps in North California and Nevada. Formerly encounters with " Old Ephraim," as the 

 trappers called this bear, were numerous and deadly. It attacked men if attacked by them, and 

 often without provocation. The horse, perhaps more than its rider, was the object of the bear. 

 A great furrier measured a grizzly which was 9 feet long from nose to tail. The weight some- 

 times reaches 800 Ibs. Measurements of much larger grizzly bears have been recorded, but 

 it is difficult to credit them. On a ranche near the upper waters of the Colorado River several 

 colts were taken by grizzly bears. One of them was found buried according to the custom of 

 this bear, and the owner sat up to shoot the animal. Having only the old-fashioned small-bored 

 rifle of the day, excellent for shooting deer or Indians, but useless against so massive a beast as 

 this bear, unless hit in the head or heart, he only wounded it. The bear rushed in, struck him a 

 blow with its paw (the paw measures a foot across), smashed the rifle which he held up as a 

 protection, and struck the barrel on to his head. The man fell insensible, when the bear, having 

 satisfied himself that he was dead, picked him up, carried him off, and buried him in another 

 hole which it scratched near the dead colt. It then dug up the colt and ate part of it, and went 

 off. Some time later the man came to his senses, and awoke to find himself " dead and buried." 

 As the earth was only roughly thrown over him, he scrambled out, and saw close by the half- 

 eaten remains of the colt. Thinking that it might be about the bear's dinner-time, and remem- 

 bering that he was probably put by in the larder for the next meal, he hurried home at once, and 

 did not trouble the bear again. Not so a Siberian peasant, who had much the same adventure. 

 He had been laughed at for wishing to shoot a bear, and went out in the woods to do so. The 

 bear had the best of it, knocked him 

 down, and so frightfully mangled his arm 

 that he fainted. Bruin then buried him 

 in orthodox bear fashion ; and the man, 

 when he came to, which he fortunately 

 did before the bear came back, got up, 

 and made his way to the village. There 

 he was for a long time ill, and all through 

 his sickness and delirium talked of noth- 

 ing but shooting the bear. When he 

 got well, he disappeared into the forest 

 with his gun, and after a short absence 

 returned with the bear's skin ! 



THE AMERICAN BROWN BEAR. 



The brown bear of America is closely 

 allied to that of Europe ; it was first de- 

 scribed by Sir John Richardson, who 

 called it the Barrenlands Bear, and noted, 

 quite rightly, that it differed from the 

 grizzly in the smallness of its claws. The 

 difference in the profile is very marked 

 the brown bear having a profile like that 

 of the European bear, while that of the 

 grizzly is flat. The brown bear of North 



, , , , ,. .. , Phutt kf Kiw Tcrh Z 



America lives largely on the fruits and AMERICAN BLACK BEAR 



berries Of the northern plants, On dead The b j ack ^, r W<M the sf>ec i es f ri t encountered by the early tettlen on the 



deer, and On putrid fish, Ot Which quanti- Atlantic udt of America. The grimly belong* to the Rocky Mountain region 



