Hunting the Grisly. 3 1 ? 



ging, even though it may not abandon the attack, will 

 pause for a moment to whine or bite at the wound. 



Sometimes a single bite causes death. One of the 

 most successful bear hunters I ever knew, an old fellow 

 whose real name I never heard as he was always called 

 Old Ike, was killed in this way in the spring or early sum- 

 mer of 1886 on one of the head-waters of the Salmon. He 

 was a very good shot, had killed nearly a hundred bears with 

 the rifle, and, although often charged, had never met with 

 any accident, so that he had grown somewhat careless. On 

 the day in question he had met a couple of mining prospec- 

 tors and was travelling with them, when a grisly crossed 

 his path. The old hunter immediately ran after it, rapidly 

 gaining, as the bear did not hurry when it saw itself pur- 

 sued, but slouched slowly forwards, occasionally turning 

 its head to grin and growl. It soon went into a dense 

 grove of young spruce, and as the hunter reached the edge 

 it charged fiercely out. He fired one hasty shot, evidently 

 wounding the animal, but not seriously enough to stop or 

 cripple it ; and as his two companions ran forward they 

 saw the bear seize him with its wide-spread jaws, forcing 

 him to the ground. They shouted and fired, and the beast 

 abandoned the fallen man on the instant and sullenly re- 

 treated into the spruce thicket, whither they dared not 

 follow it. Their friend was at his last gasp ; for the whole 

 side of the chest had been crushed in by the one bite, the 

 lungs showing between the rent ribs. 



Very often, however, a bear does not kill a man by 

 one bite, but after throwing him lies on him, biting him to 

 death. Usually, if no assistance is at hand, such a man is 



