48 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



of powder; or a No. 12, carrying six drachms, might be 

 found convenient. The objections to these are, that they 

 are too cumbersome for general shooting, and too heavy 

 to be carried about except on particular occasions. A 

 good fifty-calibre Express rifle may, therefore, be said to 

 be the best for general purposes ; and if one can use that 

 to good advantage he need have little fear of grizzlies, if 

 he will only manage to keep them at a safe distance for a 

 run before commencing the attack. For my own part, I 

 should not care to get nearer than one hundred yards at 

 least, and a few feet more might not be disagreeable, if 

 there were to be a fight for supremacy, and trees were 

 scarce. 



The grizzly will not, it is said, touch a man if he remains 

 motionless on the ground, and does not breathe loudly ; and 

 so generally is this believed that the Indians have a saying 

 that a man lying down is medicine to a bear, but the trap- 

 pers say that " Ephraim " is good medicine only when you 

 let him severely alone; and their general instruction to 

 novices is not to fight him except in self-defence. 



As a proof that the grizzly will not injure a man who 

 pretends to be dead, a tale is told of Tarpello, a Snake In- 

 dian, who was knocked down and wounded in the back by 

 one of these giants ; but on falling he took excellent care to 

 lie perfectly still, and to bury his mouth, nostrils, and eye- 

 lids in the deep alkali dust, so that his breathing could not 

 be perceived. The grizzly, after snifting at him and rudely 

 pawing him about for awhile, must have concluded he was 

 dead, for it retreated without doing him any further injury. 



When it entered the shrubbery the wily red man arose, 

 and started for home as fast as his legs would carry him, 

 and told his wondering spouses, children, and kindred of 

 his miraculous escape. The tale spread all over the village 

 in a short time ; and when the medicine-man heard it, he 

 predicted that the lucky man had such strong medicine 

 that he would yet capture his assailant, and, to strengthen 

 his power, the whole tribe was ordered to commence the 

 bear -dance immediately, and to keep it up until the next 



