i8 4 FLESH-EATERS OF THE LAND 



brown hair grizzled with white ; its feet and paws are 

 enormous, with claws six inches in length. Its strength 

 may be gauged from its ability to drag to a considerable 

 distance the carcass of a buffalo weighing not much less 

 than half a ton. 



The Grizzly has no liking for vegetable food so long as 

 flesh is obtainable, and its ferocious disposition leads it to 

 attack man, when other species would use all their energies 

 in taking to flight. To its savage nature this Bear adds a 

 tenacity of life that makes it a doubly dangerous foe. It 

 has been known to receive five balls actually through the 

 lungs, and five others in different parts of the body, and 

 yet be left with sufficient vitality to chase a couple of 

 hunters into a river, where, fortunately, a shot from a third 

 man on the bank penetrated the brain, just as the infuriated 

 animal was about to seize one of its enemies. 



Hunters in the Rockies tell of marvellous escapes from 

 death when at close quarters with the Grizzly. More than 

 once men have saved their lives at a critical moment by 

 feigning death, when an enraged animal would cease to 

 maul them. One trapper, who had been stunned, awoke to 

 the fact that he was ' dead and buried.' It is characteristic 

 of the Bear to store surplus food, and during the man's un- 

 consciousness the huge beast had scratched out a shallow 

 hole, into which it tumbled the body and lightly covered it 

 with mould and leaves. When the Bear later in the day 

 returned to dine at its leisure, the prospective meal had 

 recovered his rifle, and from a safe spot was enabled to turn 

 the tables on ' Old Ephraim.' 



SYRIAN BEAR (Ursus syriacus). 



Another variety of the Brown Bear and the oldest of 

 which we have historical record, is the Syrian Bear, found 

 in various parts of Western Asia. Judging from the 

 frequent references to the Bear in Scripture, in Biblical 

 times it was probably common where now it is very rare. 

 The native haunt of the Syrian Bear to-day is only the 

 remote fastnesses of the wooded heights of Hermon and 

 Lebanon. It is narrated that David had to defend his 



