246 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



bear-handling and almost killing two guides in the Yellowstone 

 Park, is long and thrilling. The record reaches back to the 

 days of Lewis and Clark, who related many wild adventures 

 with bears. The grizzlies of their day were very courageous, but 

 even then they were not greatly given to attacking men quite 

 unprovoked! In those days of bow-and-arrow Indians, and 

 of white men armed only with ineffective muzzle-loading pea 

 rifles, using only weak black powder, the grizzlies had an even 

 chance with their human adversaries, and sometimes they took 

 first money. In those days the courage of the grizzly was at 

 its highest peak; and it was then conceded by all frontiersmen 

 that the grizzly was thoroughly courageous, and always ready 

 to fight. In the light of subsequent history, and in order to 

 be just to the grizzly, we claim that his fighting was in self 

 defense, for even in those days the unwounded bear preferred to 

 run rather than to fight unnecessarily. 



The rise of the high-power, long-range repeating rifle has 

 made the grizzly bear a different animal from what he was in 

 the days of Lewis and Clark. He has learned, thoroughly, the 

 supreme deadliness of man's new weapons, and he knows that 

 he is no longer able to meet men on even terms. Consequently, 

 he runs, he hides, he avoids man, everywhere save in the Yel- 

 lowstone Park, where he has found out that firearms are pro- 

 hibited. There he has broken the truce so often that his 

 offenses have had to be met with stern disciplinary measures 

 that have made for the safety of tourists and guides. 



Once I saw an amusing small incident. Be it known that 

 when a new black bear cub is introduced to a den of its peers, 

 the newcomer shrinks in fright, and cowers, and takes its place 

 right humbly. But species alter cases. Once when we re- 

 ceived an eight-months-old grizzly cub we turned it loose in a 

 big den that contained five black bear cubs a year older than 

 itself. But did the grizzly cub cower and shrink? By no man- 

 ner of means. With head fully erect, it marched calmly to the 

 centre of the den, and with serene confidence gave the other 

 cubs the once-over with an air that .plainly said: 



