122 Hunting the Grisly 



leave him alive, perhaps after half burying 

 what it believes to be the body. In a very 

 few exceptional instances men of extraordi- 

 nary prowess with the knife have succeeded 

 in beating off a bear, and even in mortally 

 wounding it, but in most cases a single- 

 handed struggle, at close quarters, with a 

 grisly bent on mischief, means death. 



Occasionally the bear, although vicious, is 

 also frightened, and passes on after giving one 

 or two bites; and frequently a man who is 

 knocked down is rescued by his friends be- 

 fore he is killed, the big beast mayhap using 

 his weapons with clumsiness. So a bear may 

 kill a foe with a single blow of its mighty fore- 

 arm, either crushing in the head or chest by 

 sheer force of sinew, or else tearing open the 

 body with its formidable claws ; and so on the 

 other hand he may, and often does, merely dis- 

 figure or maim the foe by a hurried stroke. 

 Hence it is common to see men who have es- 

 caped the clutches of a grisly, but only at the 

 cost of features marred beyond recognition, 

 or a body rendered almost helpless for life. 

 Almost every old resident of western Mon- 

 tana or northern Idaho has known two or 

 three unfortunates who have suffered in this 

 manner. I have myself met one such man 



