BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 363 



which grizzly bitches have, when hunted, deserted their cubs, 

 and left them up -a tree at the mercy of the hunters ; but this is, 

 of course, unusual. As a rule, grizzlies are distinctly 'ugly' when 

 they have young with them, and will defend them to the last. 

 However, with cubs or without, a man with a good rifle and a 

 steady nerve need never let a bear go in the open. In thick 

 brush there are times when caution is better than courage. As 

 I write, a picture comes before my eyes of a willow swamp, 

 high up on the head-waters of a mountain stream in the 

 States. An old guide of mine is on the edge of the timber 

 watching, whilst the brush swings and rattles, and an unseen 

 form shakes down the yellow leaves and fills the gulch with 

 her growls. It is only a bitch silver-tip, who has got the man's 

 wind and is trying to collect her cubs ; but, although it is 

 exasperating to stand while the old lady makes her escape 

 up the gully, there is nothing else to be done. If she does 

 not mean to face the open, none but a greenhorn would 

 attempt to go to her when she was ' fighting mad,' in bush 

 too thick to walk through, and in places over six feet high. 

 All the old authorities talk of grizzlies rising to an upright 

 position on closing with a man, but I have never met a man 

 who had seen anything of this habit, although I have known 

 more than one man who has been struck down by a bear. 

 I have myself come suddenly upon a grizzly, and seen him 

 rise and face me in the position I refer to, but he did not stop 

 in that position long enough for me to dismount and fire, and 

 I am convinced that his only object in rising upon his hind 

 legs was to get a better view of the intruder, not to attack him- 



There is no doubt that a bear's sight is his weak point. 

 In bright moonlight I have had one walk past myself and 

 another man in the open at forty yards without seeing us ; but 

 if his sight is indifferent, he has the ears of a hare and the nose 

 of a caribou, and this is especially the case with the black 

 bear, whose timidity has possibly somewhat sharpened his 

 senses. 



That grizzlies do not climb, except as cubs, appears to be 



