AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 167 



are frequently necessary to stop one of these savage 

 beasts. A single bullet lodged in the brain is fatal. 

 If shot through the heart he may run a quarter of 

 a mile or kill a man before he succumbs. In the 

 days of the old muzzle-loading rifle it was hazard- 

 ous indeed to hunt the grizzly, and many a man has 

 paid the penalty of his folly with his life. With 

 our improved breech-loading and repeating rifles 

 there is less risk. 



The grizzly is said to bury carcasses of large ani- 

 mals for future use as food, but this I doubt. I 

 have frequently returned to carcasses of elk or deer 

 that I had killed and found that during my absence 

 bears had partially destroyed them, and in their 

 excitement, occasioned by the smell or taste of fresh 

 meat, had pawed up the earth a good deal there- 

 about, throwing dirt and leaves in various directions, 

 and some of this debris may have fallen on the 

 bodies of the dead game; but I have never seen where 

 any systematic attempt had been made at burying a 

 carcass. Still, Bruin may have playad the sexton in 

 some cases. He hibernates during winter, but does 

 not take to his long sleep until the winter has 

 thoroughly set in and the snow is quite deep. He 

 may frequently be tracked and found in snow a foot 

 deep, where he is roaming in search of food. He 

 becomes very fat before going into winter quarters, 

 and this vast accumulation of oil furnishes nutriment 

 and heat sufficient to sustain life during his long 

 confinement. 



The newspapers often kill grizzlies weighing 1,500, 

 1,800, or even 2,000 pounds, and in any party of 

 frontiersmen "talking grizzly" you will find plenty 



