HUNTING THE GRISLY. 115 



reason why it should have charged, for it was 

 fat and in good trim, though when killed its 

 head showed scars made by the teeth of rival 

 grislies. Apparently it had been living so well, 

 principally on flesh, that it had become 

 quarrelsome ; and perhaps its not over sweet 

 disposition had been soured by combats with 

 others of its own kind. In yet another case, 

 a grisly charged with even less excuse. An 

 old trapper, from whom I occasionally bought 

 fur, was toiling up a mountain pass when he 

 spied a big bear sitting on his haunches on 

 the hill-side above. The trapper shouted and 

 waved his cap ; whereupon, to his amazement, 

 the bear uttered a loud " wough " and charged 

 straight down on him only to fall a victim 

 to misplaced boldness. 



I am even inclined to think that there have 

 been wholly exceptional occasions when a 

 grisly has attacked a man with the deliberate 

 purpose of making a meal of him ; when, in 

 other words, it has started on the career of a 

 man-eater. At least, on any other theory I 

 find it difficult to account for an attack which 

 once came to my knowledge. I was at Sand 

 Point, on Pend' Oreille Lake, and met some 

 French and Meti trappers, then in town with 

 their bales of beaver, otte;, and sable. One 

 of them, who gave his name as Uaptiste La- 

 moche, had his head twisted over to one side, 

 the result of the bite of a bear. When the 

 accident occurred he was out on a trapping 

 trip with two companions. They had pitched 

 camp right on the shore of a cove in a little 



