HUNTING THE GRISLY. 105 



weapons with clumsiness. So a bear may kill 

 a foe with a single blow of its mighty fore-arm, 

 either crushing in the head or chest by sheer 

 force of sinew, or else tearing open the body 

 with its formidable claws ; and so on the other 

 hand he may, and often does, merely disfigure 

 or maim the foe by a hurried stroke. Hence 

 it is common to see men who have escaped 

 the clutches of a grisly, but only at the cost of 

 features marred beyond recognition, or a body 

 rendered almost helpless for life. Almost 

 every old resident of western Montana or 

 northern Idaho has known two or three unfor- 

 tunates who have suffered in this manner. I 

 have myself met one such man in Helena, and 

 another in Missoula ; both were living at least 

 as late as 1889, the date at which I last saw 

 them. One had been partially scalped by a 

 bear's teeth ; the animal was very old and so 

 the fangs did not enter the skull. The other 

 had been bitten across the face, and the wounds 

 never entirely healed, so that his disfigured 

 visage was hideous to behold. 



Most of these accidents occur in following 

 a wounded or worried bear into thick cover ; 

 and under such circumstances an animal ap- 

 parently hopelessly disabled, or in the death 

 throes, may with a last effort kill one or more 

 of its assailants. In 1874 my wife's uncle,. 

 Captain Alexander Moore, U. S. A., and my 

 friend Captain Bates, with some men of the 

 2d and 3^ Cavalry, were scouting in Wyom- 

 ing, near the Freezeout Mountains. One 

 morning they roused a bear in the open prairie 



