THE GRIZZLY BEAB. 45 



their foolhardiness in attacking the grizzly at a disadvan- 

 tage, or with poor weapons, is by no means small; and 

 were it not for the fact that others sought safety in con- 

 venient trees when pursued, it would be much greater. A 

 man in Northern California who attacked the animal sin- 

 gle-handed, and at close quarters, was supposed to have 

 been killed by it with a single blow of its paw ; for when 

 found by his friends a few days after, he was scarcely rcc- 

 oguizable, as the flesh was torn off the scalp, face, and 

 chest, the ribs were crushed in, and the arms and thighs 

 were broken. 



Another man, who formed one of a party of hunters who 

 were out in search of deer in California, encountered a 

 grizzly suddenly while passing through a coppice in which 

 manzanita formed the undergrowth. The bear was eating 

 the berries of this shrub, of which it is very fond, and will 

 travel far to procure, and strongly protested with muffled, 

 thundering huffs, at being disturbed during its meal. The 

 hunter being dazed by the suddenness of the meeting, and 

 terrified by the growls, knew not what to do at first; but 

 after a short hesitation he concluded to face about and 

 hasten out of the shrubbery, and, acting on this impulse, ho 

 tore through it at his highest speed. The bear, which had 

 made no threatening demonstration before that time, seem- 

 ed to have been aroused into fury by the noise and action 

 of the fugitive, so after him it ran. The race was a short 

 one, for the enormous weight of the grizzly carried all ob- 

 stacles before it, and the man was overtaken inside a dis- 

 tance of one hundred yards, and hurled to the earth with 

 one blow. The fall stunned him for a few moments, and, 

 when he recovered his senses, he found that he was being 

 dragged away by the arm, the bear evidently having de- 

 cided to bury him for future use. Though sick at heart 

 from the pain of his arm and his forcible passage through 

 the bushes, he concluded to keep quiet, hoping that some- 

 thing would turn up to give him an opportunity of escap- 

 ing, or, if the worst came to the worst, to enable him to ex- 

 tricate himself from a living grave. He had been dragged 



