OLD EPHRAIM, TtfE GRISLY BEAR. 51 



larger than those of many I have seen from 

 the northern Rockies. The Alaskan bears, 

 particularly those of the peninsula, are even 

 bigger beasts ; the skin of one which I saw in 

 the possession of Mr. Webster, the taxider- 

 mist, was a good deal larger than the average 

 polar bear skin ; and the animal when alive, 

 if in good condition, could hardly have weighed 

 less than 1,400 pounds.* Bears vary wonder- 

 fully in weight, even to the extent of becom- 

 ing half as heavy again, according as they are 

 fat or lean ; in this respect they are more like 

 hogs than like any other animals. 



The grisly is now chiefly a beast of the high 

 hills and heavy timber ; but this is merely be- 

 cause he has learned that he must rely on 

 cover to guard him from man, and has for- 

 saken the open ground accordingly. In old 

 days, and in one or two very out-of-the-way 

 places almost to the present time, he wandered 

 at will over the plains. It is only the weari- 

 ness born of fear which nowadays causes him 

 to cling to the thick brush of the large river- 

 bottoms throughout the plains country. When 

 there were no rifle-bearing hunters in the land, 

 to harass him and make him afraid, he roved 

 hither and thither at will, in burly self-con- 

 fidence. Then he cared little for cover, un- 

 less as a weather-break, or because it hap- 

 pened to contain food he liked. If the humor 

 seized him he would roam for days over the 

 rolling or broken prairie, searching for roots, 



* Both this huge Alaskan bear and the entirely distinct bear of 

 the barren grounds differ widely from the true grisly, at least in 

 their extreme forms. 



