Old Rpkraim, the Grisly Bear. 277 



well for a life of rapine against shy woodland creatures. 

 Its vast strength and determined temper, however, more 

 than make amends for lack of agility in the actual struggle 

 with the stricken prey ; its difficulty lies in seizing, not in 

 killing, the game. Hence, when a grisly does take to 

 game-killing, it is likely to attack bison, moose, and elk ; 

 it is rarely able to catch deer, still less sheep or antelope. 

 In fact these smaller game animals often show but little 

 dread of its neighborhood, and, though careful not to let 

 it come too near, go on grazing when a bear is in full 

 sight. Whitetail deer are frequently found at home in 

 the same thicket in which a bear has its den, while they 

 immediately desert the temporary abiding place of a wolf 

 or cougar. Nevertheless, they sometimes presume too 

 much on this confidence. A couple of years before the 

 occurrence of the feats of cattle-killing mentioned above 

 as happening near my ranch, either the same bear that 

 figured in them, or another of similar tastes, took to game- 

 hunting. The beast lived in the same succession of huge 

 thickets which cover for two or three miles the river 

 bottoms and the mouths of the inflowing creeks ; and he 

 suddenly made a raid on the whitetail deer which were 

 plentiful in the dense cover. The shaggy, clumsy mon- 

 ster was cunning enough to kill several of these knowing 

 creatures. The exact course of procedure I never could 

 find out ; but apparently the bear laid in wait beside the 

 game trails, along which the deer wandered. 



In the old days when the innumerable bison grazed 

 free on the prairie, the grisly sometimes harassed their 

 bands as it now does the herds of the ranchman. The 



