358 Wild Beasts 



but timber and brush seem to be more or less accidental 

 accessories so far as his preference is concerned. The 

 animal needs a constant supply of water, and if this can 

 be had, broken and intricate ravine systems suit it as well 

 as thickets or forest land. Its partiality for swamps de- 

 pends upon their productions, and the fact that game 

 is apt to be found in them. Independently of special 

 considerations of any kind, the propensity to conceal 

 itself is a natural and necessary outgrowth of the habits 

 and character of all predatory creatures. They do so uni- 

 versally, and a grizzly, like the rest, much prefers a wind- 

 row, precipitous arroyo, or brake, to any plain whatever 

 which is not overgrown in some way. 



Grizzly bears do not climb trees. They are said to 

 shake them in order to procure fruit, and also for the pur- 

 pose of dislodging men who have taken refuge among their 

 branches ; in general, however, the animal sits up and 

 claws down the boughs within reach. 



Probably that conventional expression, the " bear hug/' 

 has no significance anywhere. Some bears hug tree stems 

 in ascending trunks adapted to their embrace, but Asiatic 

 species of all kinds simply sink their claws into the bark 

 of boles they would be utterly unable to gain any hold 

 upon otherwise, and climb like cats. This arctoid is too 

 heavy for that ; he is over-sized, in fact, like the greater 

 Felidcz, for any arboreal gymnastics. The writer can find 

 no reliable evidence to show that this or any other bear 

 attempts to inflict injury by straining the body of an 

 enemy within its arms. A grizzly will grasp and hold a 

 man or beast while biting, or striking with the claws of 



