260 The Grizzly Bear 



so far from ever having seen it claimed that the writers 

 of these phantasies ever saw a grizzly examine one of 

 these "challenges" and heed it, I have never seen an 

 eye- witness's account of the making of these marks; and 

 only three times in all the years that I have watched these 

 animals have I stumbled on a sight of the operation. 



The first time was many years ago while sitting one 

 evening on the side of a mountain watching five grizzlies 

 that were out feeding. It was August, and their hides were 

 worthless, and I was studying them with no idea of shoot- 

 ing. The bears all came out of a thickly timbered canon 

 through which ran an old game trail made by deer and 

 elk. I had often travelled this trail, and noticed that 

 here and there large pieces had been ripped out of the 

 trees, apparently by some animal with long, sharp teeth. 

 Inspection indicated that two teeth had been sunk into the 

 wood an inch or more, and then, by a sharp twist, a slab of 

 wood had been torn off, and I had supposed the animal 

 that did it was a bear, for I could plainly see the mark 

 of a bear's claws in the bark. 



The evening in question, while watching the mouth 

 of this canon, I saw, first, an old she bear and her two 

 yearling cubs appear and start feeding on the ripe berries. 

 Later an old male came out and also started feasting; 

 and these four bears were making great inroads on the 

 berries when a fifth appeared. He was smaller than 

 the older male, but he came out of the canon slowly 

 and sedately, and seemed to be very lazy and not more 

 than half awake. He came to the edge of the timber and, 

 looking indifferently around, as these animals will under 

 such circumstances, sat down and scratched his ear with 



