8o Hunting the Grisly 



lived a dozen miles from me on the Little 

 Missouri once found a she-bear and three 

 half-grown cubs feeding at a berry-patch in a 

 ravine. He shot the old she in the small of 

 the back, whereat she made a loud roaring 

 and squealing. One of the cubs rushed to- 

 ward her; but its sympathy proved misplaced, 

 for she knocked it over with a hearty cuff, 

 either out of mere temper, or because she 

 thought her pain must be due to an unpro- 

 voked assault from one of her offspring. 

 The hunter then killed one of the cubs, and 

 the other two escaped. When bears are to- 

 gether and one is wounded by a bullet, but 

 does not see the real assailant, it often falls 

 tooth and nail upon its comrade, apparently 

 attributing its injury to the latter. 



Bears are hunted in many ways. Some are 

 killed by poison; but this plan is only prac- 

 ticed by the owners of cattle or sheep who 

 have suffered from their ravages. Moreover, 

 they are harder to poison than wolves. Most 

 often they are killed in traps, which are some- 

 times dead-falls, on the principle of the little 

 figure 4 trap familiar to every American coun- 

 try boy, sometimes log-pens in which the ani- 

 mal is taken alive, but generally huge steel 

 gins. In some States there is a bounty for the 



