Hunting the Grisly 



and growling, until one of the men leaped off 

 his horse, ran up to the edge of the hole, and 

 killed her with a single bullet from his re- 

 volver, fired so close that the powder burned 

 her hair. The unfortunate cubs were roped, 

 and then so dragged about that they were 

 speedily killed instead of being brought alive 

 to camp, as ought to have been done. 



In the cases mentioned above the grisly at- 

 tacked only after having been itself assailed, 

 or because it feared an assault, for itself or 

 for its young. In the old days, however, it 

 may almost be said that a grisly was more apt 

 to attack than to flee. Lewis and Clark and 

 the early explorers who immediately suc- 

 ceeded them, as well as the first hunters and 

 trappers, the "Rocky Mountain men" of the 

 early decades of the present century, were 

 repeatedly assailed in this manner; and not 

 a few of the bear hunters of that period found 

 that it was unnecessary to take much trouble 

 about approaching their quarry, as the grisly 

 was usually prompt to accept the challenge 

 and to advance of its own accord, as soon as 

 it discovered the foe. All this is changed now. 

 Yet even at the present day an occasional 

 vicious old bear may be found, in some far-off 

 and little-trod fastness, which still keeps up 



