CHAPTER III 



OLD EPHRAIM, THE GRISLY BEAR 



HPHE king of the game beasts of temperate 

 * North America, because the most dan- 

 gerous to the hunter, is the grisly bear ; known 

 to the few remaining old-time trappers of the 

 Rockies and the Great Plains, sometimes as 

 "Old Ephraim" and sometimes as "Moccasin 

 Joe" the last in allusion to his queer, half- 

 human footprints, which look as if made by 

 some misshapen giant, walking in moccasins. 

 Bear vary greatly in size and color, no less 

 than in temper and habits. Old hunters speak 

 much of them in their endless talks over the 

 camp-fires and in the snow-bound winter huts. 

 They insist on many species; not merely the 

 black and the grisly, but the brown, the cinna- 

 mon, the gray, the silver-tip, and others with 

 names known only in certain localities, such 

 as the range bear, the roach-back, and the 

 smut-face. But, in spite of popular opinion 

 to the contrary, most old hunters are very un- 

 trustworthy in dealing with points of natural 



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