270 THE BEAR FAMILY 



men ; and his enormous claws are worn round the neck 

 of an Indian brave as a trophy more honorable than a 

 human scalp. . . . Other bears are formidable when 

 wounded and provoked, but seldom make battle when 

 allowed to escape. The grizzly bear alone, of all the 

 animals of our Western wilds, is prone to unprovoked 

 hostility. His prodigious size and strength make him 

 a formidable opponent ; and his great tenacity of life 

 often baffles the skill of the hunter, notwithstanding 

 repeated shots of the rifle and wounds of the hunting- 

 knife." 



John Muir, who recently met a grizzly in California, 

 says he did not shoot (was in fact unarmed), and that 

 the bear slowly retreated, without offering to attack 

 him. 



Grizzly bears are gregarious, and in former years 

 many were sometimes seen together. Mr. Tinsley 

 says when the animals were many and the hunters 

 few, bands of fifty and more grizzlies were frequently 

 found. The sportsman of to-day, however, who wishes 

 a rug, is lucky to find one bear as a reward for several 

 weeks' hard work. 



Mr. Elmer Frank, with a friend named Clark, had an 

 engagement with grizzly bears which was most re- 

 markable, not alone on account of the number of the 

 enemy actively in the affair, but for many other 

 reasons. So remarkable, indeed, did Mr. Frank's ac- 

 count appear to the editor, when he sent it to a maga- 

 zine,* that he decided to verify it before publishing it, 

 and I may say here, that two persons who visited the 

 field, saw the five bears which were slain in the encoun- 



* Outing. 



