82 Hunting the Grisly 



big round body. An old horse is the most 

 common bait. 



It is, of course, all right to trap bears when 

 they are followed merely as vermin or for the 

 sake of the fur. Occasionally, however, hunt- 

 ers who are out merely for sport adopt this 

 method; but this should never be done. To 

 shoot a trapped bear for sport is a thoroughly 

 unsportsmanlike proceeding. A funny plea 

 sometimes advanced in its favor is that it is 

 "dangerous." No doubt in exceptional in- 

 stances this is true ; exactly as it is true that in 

 exceptional instances it is "dangerous" for a 

 butcher to knock over a steer in the slaughter- 

 house. A bear caught only by the toes may 

 wrench itself free as the hunter comes near, 

 and attack him with pain-maddened fury; or if 

 followed at once, and if the trap and bar are 

 light, it may be found in some thicket, still 

 free, and in a frenzy of rage. But even in such 

 cases the beast has been crippled, and though 

 crazy with pain and anger is easily dealt with 

 by a good shot; while ordinarily the poor brute 

 is found in the last stages of exhaustion, tied 

 tight to a tree where the log or bar has caught, 

 its teeth broken to splintered stumps by rabid 

 snaps at the cruel trap and chain. Some trap- 

 pers kill the trapped grislies with a revolver; 



