The Grizzly Bear 369 



fore it began to avoid mankind ; neither has he, apparently, 

 taken more than the briefest glance at those accounts of 

 the grizzly which give the results of personal observation. 

 This animal is not customarily a hibernating one, it is not 

 in the habit of climbing trees at any age, its reputation was 

 far from being the outcome of a demand made by popular 

 credulity. A grizzly bear could easily drag a horse up to 

 him if he had hold of its riata. The Indian who killed one 

 single-handed with a bow and arrows or trade-gun per- 

 formed a feat second to none that can be imagined in the 

 way of skill and daring, but thousands of rifle-carrying 

 mountain men have done the like who took small credit to 

 themselves, and got little from anybody else. This whole 

 description is, considering its source, of the most surpris- 

 ing and unexpected character. 



There are not many accounts of grizzly bears declining 

 to fight ; but it is evident that in this respect the animal, 

 like every other beast that has been discussed, is more or 

 less aggressive, according to the locality where it is found. 

 Those bears Lewis and Clark encountered on the Upper 

 Missouri in 1804, are like the grizzlies of the Yukon to- 

 day, but their relations, that have been shot for nearly a 

 century, know about rifles and conduct themselves accord- 

 ingly. Theodore Roosevelt (" Still Hunting the Grizzly " ) 

 expresses this change very well. " Now-a-days," he ob- 

 serves, " these great bears are much better aware than 

 formerly of the death-dealing power of man, and, as a 

 consequence, are far less fierce than was the case with 

 their forefathers. . . . Constant contact with rifle-carrying 

 hunters for a period extending over many generations of 



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