200 HUNTING TRIPS 



adays these great bears are undoubtedly 

 much better aware of the death-dealing 

 power of men, and, as a consequence, much 

 less fierce, than was the case with their fore- 

 fathers, who so unhesitatingly attacked the 

 early Western travellers and explorers. 

 Constant contact with rifle-carrying hunt- 

 ers, for a period extending over many gen- 

 erations of bear-life, has taught the grizzly 

 by bitter experience that man is his un- 

 doubted overlord, as far as fighting goes; 

 and this knowledge has become an heredi- 

 tary characteristic. No grizzly will assail a 

 man now unprovoked, and one will almost 

 always rather run than fight; though if he 

 is wounded or thinks himself cornered he will 

 attack his foes with a headlong, reckless fury 

 that renders him one of the most dangerous 

 of wild beasts. The ferocity of all wild ani- 

 mals depends largely upon the amount of re- 

 sistance they are accustomed to meet with, 

 and the quantity of molestation to which they 

 are subjected. 



The change in the grizzly's character dur- 



