62 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



Nothing molested them during the winter. 

 Early in the spring a grisly came out of its den, 

 and he found its tracks in many places, as it 

 roamed restlessly about, evidently very hungry. 

 Finding little to eat in the bleak, snow-drifted 

 woods, it soon began to depredate on the 

 moose, and killed two or three, generally by 

 lying in wait and dashing out on them as they 

 passed near its lurking-place. Even the bulls 

 were at that season weak, and of course horn- 

 less, with small desire to fight ; and in each 

 case the rush of the great bear doubtless 

 made with the ferocity and speed which so 

 often belie the seeming awkwardness of the 

 animal bore down the startled victim, taken 

 utterly unawares before it had a chance to 

 defend itself. In one case the bear had missed 

 its spring ; the moose going off, for a few rods, 

 with huge jumps, and then settling down into 

 its characteristic trot. The old hunter who 

 followed the tracks said he would never have 

 deemed it possible for any animal to make 

 such strides while in a trot. 



Nevertheless, the grisly is only occasionally, 

 not normally, a formidable predatory beast, a 

 killer of cattle and of large game. Although 

 capable of far swifter movement than is 

 promised by his frame of seemingly clumsy 

 strength, and in spite of his power of charging 

 with astonishing suddenness and speed, he yet 

 lacks altogether the supple agility of such 

 finished destroyers as the cougar and the wolf ; 

 and for the absence of this agility no amount 

 of mere huge muscle can atone. He is more apt 



