BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 361 



2,ooo-lb. grizzlies are quite common, and ' as big as a bull ' is 

 but a mild way of describing nine bears out of ten shot by 

 them. 



As a matter of fact, I am by no means prepared to doubt 

 all their stories. There are unquestionably some exceptional 

 monsters met with now and again, but too many of those in- 

 stanced have been described merely from the impression made 

 on the hunter's mind by the sight of a gigantic track which 

 has spread in soft snow or mud. The largest grizzly of which 

 I have had anything like trustworthy information in my own 

 wanderings was shot in Alaska, at English Bay, Kodak Island, 

 by Mr. J. C. Tolman, now Customs officer at Wrangel. As 

 Mr. Tolman allows his name to appear, and as he enjoyed an 

 enviable reputation for veracity among men who had known 

 him for years, I give the dimensions of his big bear as he gave 

 them to me, extracted from notes made in his diary at the 

 time at which he killed him. The bear was killed only a few 

 miles from a settlement, and was actually weighed, turning the 

 scales at 1,656 Ibs. dead weight not cleaned ; his hide when 

 freshly skinned measured 13 ft. 6 ins. from nose to anus ; 

 from ear to ear he measured 13 ins. ; from poll to nose, 

 20 ins.; the length of the hind-foot was 18 ins., and the 

 breadth of the forefoot 12 ins. He was killed by a single 

 shot in the head from a Winchester rifle. 



The largest bear which I have myself shot was also an 

 Alaskan, but infinitely smaller than the above ; still, even this 

 bear gave four strong men all they could do, with a rope round 

 her neck, to drag her, when dead, down a sloping mud bank 

 into a canoe laid over on its side to receive her. Her forearm, 

 when skinned, measured 23 ins., fair measurement, the tape 

 being stretched as tight as it would go. The Indians put this 

 bear at from 1,000 to 1,500 Ibs., and I dare say she really 

 weighed nearly 800 or possibly 900 Ibs., but I am no judge of 

 an animal's weight, and had no means of weighing her. I 

 have myself measured skins in Mr. Boscowitz's store at Victoria 

 (also brought down from Alaska) which measured 9 ft. 10 ins. 



