262 THE BEAR FAMILY 



down again on all fours, " the shaggy hair seeming to 

 bristle " as he turned toward the sportsmen. In the 

 same article we are told (something that I did not know 

 before) that the name of this bear has reference to its 

 character and not to its color, and should therefore be 

 spelled "grisly" — in the sense of horrible as we speak 

 of a " grisly spectre " — and not grizzly. 



" In killing dangerous game," the same writer well 

 says, " steadiness is more needed than good shooting. 

 No game is dangerous unless a man is close up, for 

 nowadays hardly any wild beast will charge from a 

 distance of a hundred yards, but will rather try to run 

 off ; and if a man is close, it is easy enough for him to 

 shoot straight if he does not lose his head. A bear's 

 brain is about the size of a pint bottle, and anyone 

 can hit a pint bottle off-hand at thirty or forty feet. I 

 have had two shots at bears at close quarters, and 

 each time I fired into the brain, the bullet in one case 

 striking fairly between the eyes and in the other 

 going in between the eye and ear. A novice at this 

 kind of sport will find it best and safest to keep in 

 mind the old Norse viking's advice in reference to a 

 long sword: 'If you go in close enough, your sword 

 will be long enough.' If a poor shot goes in close 

 enough, he will find that he shoots straight enough." 



Upon one occasion, in the Big Horn Mountains, a 

 friend of mine, an army ofificer, fired at a grizzly at 

 close range and only wounded it. With a savage roar 

 the beast turned about, and, seeing his orderly stand- 

 ing at a short distance, charged him at full tilt. As 

 he passed my friend (who was, by the way, one of the 

 coolest and best shots I ever saw in any field), he fired 



