372 Wild Beasts 



" that . . . Bruin has secured for himself an almost super- 

 stitious respect." The way he did so has just been men- 

 tioned. Men had reason to fear him, and their veneration 

 followed as a matter of course. It was because he proved 

 "most formidable and dangerous" that Schwatka found 

 among the Chilkat Indians the highest clan called brown 

 bears, and for a like reason the native warrior wore his 

 claws as a badge of honor. 



Ferocity, prowess, and tenacity of life appear most con- 

 spicuously in accounts of actual conflict. Enough has been 

 said with respect to the first-named trait, and no one ever 

 called the others in question. Major Leveson (" Sport in 

 Many Lands ") is of the opinion that grizzly bears should 

 only be met with the heaviest rifles " bone-smashers," as 

 Sir Samuel Baker calls them. Lighter weapons are too often 

 ineffectual, and Dall (" Alaska and its Resources ") reports 

 that when the poorly armed natives of that province occa- 

 sionally venture upon an assault of this kind, they assem- 

 ble in large parties, watch the bear into the recesses of its 

 den, block up the entrance with timber prepared for this 

 purpose, and fire volleys into him as he tries to get at them. 

 It will be denied by some, on anatomical grounds, that the 

 Alaskan bears are grizzlies, but we are not concerned here 

 with structural distinctions, and in character there is no dif- 

 ference. Colonel Dodge mentions the case of two soldiers 

 at Fort Wingate who had an unfortunate encounter with 

 one of these beasts, but does not give the details. Roose- 

 velt, however, had the tale from the surgeon who attended 

 them, and relates it (" Hunting Trips of a Ranchman ") 

 as follows : " The men were mail-carriers, and one day 



