3H The Wilderness Hunter, 



even crippled for life by grislies ; and a number of cases 

 where they killed men outright were also brought under 

 my ken. Generally these accidents, as was natural, oc- 

 curred to hunters who had roused or wounded the game. 

 A fighting bear sometimes uses his claws and sometimes 

 his teeth. I have never known one to attempt to kill an 

 antagonist by hugging, in spite of the popular belief to 

 this effect ; though he will sometimes draw an enemy tow- 

 ards him with his paws the better to reach him with his 

 teeth, and to hold him so that he cannot escape from the 

 bitting. Nor does the bear often advance on his hind legs to 

 the attack ; though, if the man has come close to him in thick 

 underbrush, or has stumbled on him in his lair unawares, 

 he will often rise up in this fashion and strike a single 

 blow. He will also rise in clinching with a man on horse- 

 back. In 1882 a mounted Indian was killed in this mari- 

 ner on one of the river bottoms some miles below where 

 my ranch house now stands, not far from the junction of 

 the Beaver and Little Missouri. The bear had been 

 hunted into a thicket by a band of Indians, in whose com- 

 pany my informant, a white squaw-man, with whom I af- 

 terward did some trading, was travelling. One of them 

 in the excitement of the pursuit rode across the end of the 

 thicket ; as he did so the great beast sprang at him with 

 wonderful quickness, rising on its hind legs, and knocking 

 over the horse and rider with a single sweep of its terri- 

 ble fore-paws. It then turned on the fallen man and tore 

 him open, and though the other Indians came promptly 

 to his rescue and slew his assailant, they were not in time 

 to save their comrade's life. 



