THE GRIZZLY BEAR 261 



Upon several other occasions when fishing I passed 

 very close to bears and often found their tracks numer- 

 ous in the soft earth when I was out with a gun after 

 grouse. One day when the bear-tracks were very nu- 

 merous I decided that I would try and cut a bear's throat 

 at short range with a load of bird-shot. I was a good 

 many years younger than I now am and believe I 

 should have attempted the performance had I met 

 a bear that day (having once killed a fox with very fine 

 shot by shooting him in the neck at close range, and 

 having read of the buffalo being killed with a load of 

 No. 4), but I have no doubt it is just as well that I did 

 not meet a bear after having decided to experiment 

 with a shotgun. The shotgun, however, is a formi- 

 dable weapon at very close range, and I believe two 

 heavy charges of shot would come near to stopping 

 an}' bear provided the shots were fired at just the 

 right time. It would require an immense amount of 

 coolness, however. There is no animal which has a 

 greater tenacity of life than the grizzly bear, and he 

 often keeps coming even after he is mortally wounded. 

 It was often provoking, however, to see bears or other 

 large game when out with a rod or after birds with a 

 gun, and I often returned to camp to exchange weapons. 



Roosevelt, who visited the Big Horn Mountains a 

 few years after I was there, had very good luck with 

 the bears. In the account of his trip which he wrote 

 for TJic Century he describes killing a number of griz- 

 zlies, the first one of which was killed instantly with a 

 single shot from a .45-75 Winchester. Although they 

 came suddenly ui)on the bear, he did not offer to charge, 

 but simply reared up on his haunches and then dropped 



