BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 351 



male from the mainland of British Columbia, killed on the 

 Frazer river, which measured 8 ft. 2 ins. from the tip of the 

 nose to the tip of the tail. The largest killed upon the island 

 and sent to my friend was also a male which measured 7 ft. 

 3 ins. One hundred and fifty pounds is the weight of a large 

 panther as given by Mr. J. E. Harting, in some notes published 

 by him upon American mammalia, and I have no doubt that 

 this is about what an average male would weigh, but I am 

 only judging by my eye, and not from any accepted record of 

 the actual weight of any particular beast. 



The panther's food consists of small game of all kinds, deer, 

 and more especially sheep and pigs, and other farm produce. 

 In nine cases out of ten the panthers which are killed are 

 found near a sheep ranch, and it is notorious that the men who 

 get panthers are not hunters, explorers, or men on a survey 

 party where only wild game is likely to be found, but rather 

 farmers and others who have stock to look after near a settle- 

 ment. 



It may be that in Montana and Wyoming the panther grows 

 larger and is more courageous than he is on the Pacific coast ; 

 but even there he is held in some contempt by the mountain- 

 men who know him. He has a habit, it is said, of following a 

 belated hunter to camp howling in the most diabolical manner, 

 but he never proceeds to extremities. 



Some idea of the number of these beasts upon Vancouver 

 Island and in British Columbia generally may be derived from 

 the fact that the British Columbian Government paid bounties 

 for the scalps of seventy-two in 1892, all but two, I believe, 

 having been killed upon the island. 



II. THE GRIZZLY ( Ursus horribilis) 



Mr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, 

 writes me that the best naturalists only recognise three species 

 of bears in North America, namely : the Grizzly ( Ursus horri- 

 bilis], the Black Bear ( Ursus americanus), and the Polar Bear 



