Description and Distribution 197 



James Capen Adams, according to Mr. Hittell, 

 claimed that his grizzly bear Sampson had been weighed 

 on a hay scale, and tipped the beam at fifteen hundred 

 pounds. 



I have never weighed one myself, nor have I ever seen 

 one weighed. Many years ago there was a large grizzly 

 killed in Idaho, hauled into Spokane, and sold to a butcher, 

 who claimed that he weighed it and paid for eleven hun- 

 dred and seventy-three pounds of bear meat. These fig- 

 ures were placarded on the carcass as it hung in front of 

 the shop. I, with many others, saw the bear, and, had it 

 been recently, I should certainly have had it weighed and 

 had the weight certified to. But at that time no one 

 thought of doing such a thing, and thus, unfortunately, 

 the statement of the weight of one of the largest bears I 

 have ever seen is uncorroborated. 



The gait of the grizzly is peculiar and almost impos- 

 sible to describe. His walk is a kind of shuffle, similar to, 

 yet very different from, that of the black bear. It is less 

 awkward, less loose-jointed, and yet in a way more un- 

 gainly, because more suggestive of power. It differs, 

 moreover, from that of the black bear in that at no time 

 while in motion does the grizzly give one the impression of 

 being off its guard, or, so to say, of there being any point 

 in its stride when its muscles are not under instant and 

 complete command. Any one familiar with these two 

 bears can tell from one glance at the back or at the legs 

 of an animal in motion to which species it belongs. I 

 have mentioned a case in which I mistook a grizzly for a 

 black bear, and did not discover my error for some time. 

 This, however, was wholly due to the fact that my original 



