52 Hunting the Grisly 



of a female, and they had evidently just mated ; 

 yet one was distinctly a "silver-tip" and the 

 other a "cinnamon." The skin of one very big 

 bear which I killed in the Bighorn has proved 

 a standing puzzle to almost all the old hunters 

 to whom I have showed it ; rarely do any two 

 of them agree as to whether it is a grisly, a 

 silver-tip, a cinnamon, or a "smut-face." Any 

 bear with unusually long hair on the spine and 

 shoulders, especially if killed in the spring, 

 when the fur is shaggy, is forthwith dubbed a 

 "roach-back." The average sporting writer 

 moreover joins with the more imaginative 

 members of the "old hunter" variety in ascrib- 

 ing wildly various traits to these different 

 bears. One comments on the superior prowess 

 of the roach-back; the explanation being that 

 a bear in early spring is apt to be ravenous 

 from hunger. The next insists that the Cali- 

 fornia grisly is the only really dangerous bear; 

 while another stoutly maintains that it does 

 not compare in ferocity with what he calls the 

 "smaller" silver-tip or cinnamon. And so on, 

 and so on, without end. All of which is mere 

 nonsense. 



Nevertheless, it is no easy task to determine 

 how many species or varieties of bear actually 

 do exist in the United States, and I can not 



