46 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



CHAPTER HI. 



OLD EPHRAIM, THE GRISLY BEAR. 



HPHE king of the game beasts of temperate 

 J- North America, because the most dan- 

 gerous to the hunter, is the grisly bear ; known 

 to the few remaining old-time trappers of the 

 Rockies and the Great Plains, sometimes as 

 " Old Ephraim " and sometimes as " Mocca- 

 sin Joe " the last in allusion to his queer, 

 half-human footprints, which look as if made 

 by some mishapen giant, walking in mocca- 

 sins. 



Bear vary greatly in size and color, no less 

 than in temper and habits. Old hunters speak 

 much of them in their endless talks over the 

 camp fires and in the snow-bound winter huts. 

 They insist on many species ; not merely 

 the black and the grisly, but the brown, the 

 cinnamon, the gray, the silver-tip, and others 

 with names known only in certain localities, 

 such as the range bear, the roach-back, and 

 the smut-face. But, in spite of popular opin- 

 ion to the contrary, most old hunters are very 

 untrustworthy in dealing with points of natural 

 history. They usually know only so much 

 about any given game animal as will enable 

 them to kill it. They study its habits solely 



