104 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



adjacent ranges in British Columbia. The eastern slopes 

 of the Rocky Mountains form the easterly limit of the range 

 of the grizzly in Canada. Northward it may be found as 

 far as the mountains west of the Mackenzie delta. In Al- 

 berta they appear to be most abundant in the mountains 

 immediately north of Jasper Park. Throughout the Rocky 

 and Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia grizzlies may be 

 found in varying abundance. In some sections they are by 

 no means uncommon; in the Kootenay region, for example, 

 they are not difficult to find by strenuous hunting. In 1915, 

 I reached the remote and beautifully situated remnant of a 

 former prosperous gold-mining settlement bearing the name 

 of Trout Lake City (to distinguish it from Trout Lake) a 

 few days after three grizzlies, a female and two grown cubs, 

 had been killed in front of the small schoolhouse. In the 

 Stikine Mountains grizzly bears can be found in fair abun- 

 dance. 



Habits. — The grizzly bear has the unenviable reputation 

 of being the most dangerous of our big-game animals; and 

 this reputation is well deserved, for no animal is more power- 

 ful and more tenacious of life when wounded. But this 

 reputation was largely gained in the early days of the 

 West, when the arrows of the Indians and the primitive 

 firearms of white men served more to annoy than to de- 

 stroy him, and when the human aggressor often forfeited 

 his life. His ability to bring to earth, and often drag for 

 some distance, a buffalo, steer, or horse naturally inspired 

 an appreciation of his immense strength. 



But the grizzly of to-day is a different animal from the 

 former monarch of the foot-hills and mountains. In his re- 

 treat to the mountains he has accepted not merely the su- 

 periority of man himself but of man armed with the modern 

 high-powered repeating rifles, the instrument that has put 

 fear into the hearts of all members of our wild life that have 

 escaped its destructive effect. As Thompson Seton has so 



