XXI 



THE BIG BROWN BEARS 



TN Alaska on the mainland and on some of the islands 

 -''■ there are many large brown bears which have been 

 recently described as new varieties. These differ in 

 size, the one known as the Kadiak being the largest. 

 This bear is named from the island where it is found. 

 It is so large that it has been mistaken for, and wrongly 

 called, a grizzly. In the Badminton Library, Mr. 

 Phillipps-WoUey so refers to it. Mr. James H. Kidder 

 has killed a number of the Alaskan brown bears, and 

 has written entertainingly about them in a series of 

 papers,* in which he has given us much information as 

 to where and when to go, and how to pursue these 

 animals. 



These bears, although large, are evidently not nearly 

 so ferocious and formidable as the grizzlies. In a 

 series of some fourteen or fifteen bears, the killing of 

 which is entertainingly described by Mr. Kidder, only 

 one charged the hunters, and that first tried to run 

 away. The others are repeatedly referred to as mak- 

 ing for the woods (they were for the most part discov- 

 ered feeding on open marshes), after being severely 

 wounded, and while the subsequent shots were fired at 

 them. 



* Hunting the Big Game of Western Alaska, Outing, December, 1902, 

 and following numbers. 



294 



