Hunting the Grisly 117 



stumbled on him in his lair unawares, he will 

 often rise up in this fashion and strike a sin- 

 gle blow. He will also rise in clinching with 

 a man on horseback. In 1882 a mounted In- 

 dian was killed in this manner on one of the 

 river bottoms some miles below where my 

 ranch house now stands, not far from the junc- 

 tion of the Beaver and Little Missouri. The 

 bear had been hunted into a thicket by a band 

 of Indians, in whose company my informant, 

 a white squaw-man, with whom I afterward 

 did some trading, was traveling. One of them 

 in the excitement of the pursuit rode across 

 the end of the thicket; as he did so the great 

 beast sprang at him with wonderful quick- 

 ness, rising on its hind legs, and knocking 

 over the horse and rider with a single sweep 

 of its terrible fore-paws. It then turned on 

 the fallen man and tore him open, and though 

 the other Indians came promptly to his res- 

 cue and slew his assailant, they were not in 

 time to save their comrade's life. 



A bear is apt to rely mainly on his teeth or 

 claws according to whether his efforts are di- 

 rected primarily to killing his foe or to mak- 

 ing good his own escape. In the latter event 

 he trusts chiefly to his claws. If cornered, he 

 of course makes a rush for freedom, and in 



