GRIZZL Y SEAR. SI 3 



GRIZZLY BEAR. 



(Ursus ferox.) 



This is the largest of the carnivora of America. His 

 home is in the mountains ; but in the fall of the year he 

 comes down to the plains for plums, berries, grapes, and 

 other wild fruit, of which he is inordinately fond. These 

 animals are scarce and shy, keeping as much as possible 

 in thickets, whence, without dogs specially trained, it is 

 impossible to dislodge them. If feeding in the open 

 the slightest sound or suspicious circumstance will cause 

 him to take to the nearest cover, where he will lie con- 

 cealed though the hunter pass within a few feet of him. 

 If too closely approached, he rises suddenly with ' hough, 

 hough,' a hideous noise, half grunt, half roar, which 

 causes the stoutest heart to stand still, and the bravest 

 man promptly to find business in some other locality. 



A grizzly will always run away if he can, and never 

 attacks except when wounded, or when he thinks himself 

 cornered. The female will occasionally attack in defence 

 of her young, but more generally runs away and leaves 

 it to its fate. When wounded a grizzly attacks with the 

 utmost ferocity, regardless of the nature or number of his 

 assailants ; and then his great size and strength, his 

 immense teeth and claws, his tenacity of life, and, above 

 all, his determination to do injury, render him without 

 doubt the most formidable and dangerous of wild beasts. 



My personal knowledge of this animal is of the 

 slightest. In many years of plains and mountain expe- 

 rience I have never encountered but one grizzly. He 

 ran like a deer. I pursued on horseback ; but, after an 

 exciting chase, he escaped into a beaver dam thicket, 

 from which it was impossible to dislodge him. 



I have known several men to be killed by grizzlies ; 

 and one of the most complete wrecks of humanity I ever 

 saw was a man whom a grizzly, in the last moments of 



