BEAR HUNTING. 2,87 



who hunt them, are as numerous almost as the Bear that are 

 killed. They are not an animal that permits of a system in 

 hunting them, and it is for this reason that they are so dange- 

 rous and difficult to destroy. The experience of one hunt may 

 cost a limb or a life in the next one, if used as a criterion ; and 

 fatal, indeed, is the mistake, if it comes to grappling with an 

 animal whose gigantic strength enables him to lift a horse in 

 his huge arms, and bear it away as a prize. There is one terri- 

 ble exception to this rule; one habit of the animal may be 

 certainly calculated on, but a daring heart only can take ad- 

 vantage of it. 



" The Grizzly Bear, like the Tiger and Lion, have their 

 caves in which they live, but they use them pi'incijially as a 

 safe lodgmg-place, when the cold of winter renders them torpid 

 and disposed to sleep. To these caves they retire late in the 

 fall, and they seldom venture out until the warmth of spring. 

 Sometimes two occupy one cave, but this is not often the case, 

 as tlie unsociability of the animal is proverbial, they preferring 

 to be solitary and alone. A knowledge of the forests, and an 

 occasional trailing for Bear, inform the hunter of these caves, 

 and the only habit of the Grizzly Bear that can with certainty 

 be taken advantage of is the one of his being in his cave alive, 

 if at the proper season. And the hunter has the tenible liberty 

 of entering his cave single-handed and there destroying him. 

 Of this only method of hunting the Grizzly Bear we would 

 attempt a description. 



" The thought of entering a cave inhabited by one of the 

 most powerful beasts of prey, is one calculated to try the 

 strength of the best nei'ves ; and when it is considered that the 

 least trepidation, the slightest mistake, may cause, and probably 

 will result to the hunter in instant death, it certainly exhibits 

 the highest demonstration of physical courage to pursue such a 

 mctliod of hunting. Yet there are many persons in the forests 

 of North America who engage in such perilous adventures with 

 no other oliject in view tlian the sport ! or a hearty meal. The 

 hunter's preparations to ' beard the lion in his den,' commence 



