362 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



from end to end, but then some 6 ins. must be allowed for 

 on all American skins, as they are skinned up the hind legs in 

 such a way as to give quite that length of hide beyond the 

 anus. Of course, too, a skin may be so laced and strained upon 

 its frame in skinning as to stretch it a good deal beyond its 

 natural dimensions. 



In Colorado the bears appear to be mostly silver-tips, and 

 if you can rely upon the verdict of the local hunters whom I 

 met (and I have no reason to doubt their word) a Colorado 

 iilver-tip weighing 600 Ibs. would be a big bear. 



The stories of the ferocity of U. horribilis owe something 

 to the vivid imaginations of hunters and the sombre sur- 

 roundings in which they meet their prey ; but there can be no 

 doubt that on occasion this bear will face a man (or men), 

 and fight with intense ferocity. As a rule, like all bears, the 

 grizzly will run rather than fight, and very rarely attacks with- 

 out provocation, but when surprised near a carcase, when 

 cornered, when wounded, or with cubs, U. horribilis is apt to 

 be dangerous. I know of a good many deaths due to bears 

 under such circumstances, and only last year (1891) a very 

 well-known meat-hunter in Colorado was attacked in green 

 timber by a silver-tip and regularly worried by him, although 

 the man had a companion with him, and had not even seen 

 the bear until he was charged. I have myself seen the 

 marks of this bear's teeth in the leg and forearm of my old 

 guide, who explained the uriprovoked attack by saying that 

 the bear had supped on a carcase poisoned for coyotes, and 

 was ' feelin' pretty mean from belly-ache ' when found. The 

 Alaskan grizzly has a peculiarly bad reputation among the 

 Indians in that country, who upon dry land can hardly be 

 induced to face ' Hoots ' or ' Noon,' as they call the grizzly and 

 cinnamon. Most of the skins sent to Wrangel are those of 

 bears strangled in nooses, like big rabbit-snares, which are set 

 in their paths, or else of bears shot down by men on snow-shoes 

 in the deep snow of early spring, or shot on the river banks from 

 a canoe. Here it is as well to say that I know of two instances in 



