Old Ephraim, the Grisly Bear 81 



destruction of grislies; and in many places 

 their skins have a market price, although 

 much less valuable than those of the black 

 bear. The men who pursue them for the 

 bounty, or for their fur, as well as the ranch- 

 men who regard them as foes to stock, ordi- 

 narily use steel traps. The trap is very mas- 

 sive, needing no small strength to set, and it 

 is usually chained to a bar or log of wood, 

 which does not stop the bear's progress out- 

 right, but hampers and interferes with it, con- 

 tinually catching in tree stumps and the like. 

 The animal when trapped makes off at once, 

 biting at the trap and the bar; but it leaves a 

 broad wake and sooner or later is found tan- 

 gled up by the chain and bar. A bear is by 

 no means so difficult to trap as a wolf or fox 

 although more so than a cougar or a lynx. 

 In wild regions a skilful trapper can often 

 catch a great many with comparative ease. A 

 cunning old grisly, however, soon learns the 

 danger, and is then almost impossible to trap, 

 as it either avoids the neighborhood altogether 

 or finds out some way by which to get at the 

 bait without springing the trap, or else delib- 

 erately springs it first. I have been told of 

 bears which spring traps by rolling across 

 them, the iron jaws slipping harmlessly off the 



