Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear 63 



quarry; and though but a clumsy animal com- 

 pared to the great cats, the grisly is far quicker 

 than one would imagine from viewing his or- 

 dinary lumbering gait. In one or two in- 

 stances the bear had apparently grappled with 

 his victim by seizing it near the loins and 

 striking a disabling blow over the small of the 

 back; in at least one instance he had jumped 

 on the animal's head, grasping it with his fore- 

 paws, while with his fangs h tore open the 

 throat or craunched the neck bone. Some of 

 his victims were slain far from the river, in 

 winding, brushy coulies of the Bad Lands, 

 where the broken nature of the ground ren- 

 dered stalking easy. Several of the ranchmen, 

 angered at their losses, hunted their foe eager- 

 ly, but always with ill success; until one of 

 them put poison in a carcass, and thus at last, 

 in ignoble fashion, slew the cattle-killer. 



Mr. Clarence King informs me that he was 

 once eye-witness to a bear's killing a steer, in 

 California. The steer was in a small pasture, 

 and the bear climbed over, partly breaking 

 down the rails which barred the gateway. The 

 steer started to run, but the grisly overtook it 

 in four or five bounds, and struck it a tremen- 

 dous blow on the flank with one paw, knock- 

 ing several ribs clear away from the spine, 



