362 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
from end to end, but then some 6 ins. must be allowed for 
on all American skins, as they are skinned up the hind legs in 
such a way as to give quite that length of hide beyond the 
anus. Of course, too, a skin may be so laced and strained upon 
its frame in skinning as to stretch it a good deal beyond its 
natural dimensions. 
In Colorado the bears appear to be mostly silver-tips, and 
if you can rely upon the verdict of the local hunters whom I 
met (and I have no reason to doubt their word) a Colorado 
silver-tip weighing 600 lbs. would be a big bear. 
The stories of the ferocity of U. horribilis owe something 
to the vivid imaginations of hunters and the sombre sur- 
roundings in which they meet their prey ; but there can be no 
doubt that on occasion this bear will face a man (or men), 
and fight with intense ferocity. As a rule, like all bears, the 
_grizzly will run rather than fight, and very rarely attacks with- 
out provocation, but when surprised near a carcase, when 
cornered, when wounded, or with cubs, U. horridilis is apt to 
be dangerous. I know of a good many deaths due to bears 
under such circumstances, and only last year (1891) a very 
well-known meat-hunter in Colorado was attacked in green 
timber by a silver-tip and regularly worried by him, although 
the man had a companion with him, and had not even seen 
the bear until he was charged. I have myself seen the 
marks of this bear’s teeth in the leg and forearm of my old 
guide, who explained the unprovoked attack by saying that 
the bear had supped on a carcase poisoned for coyotes, and 
was ‘feelin’ pretty mean from belly-ache’ when found. The 
Alaskan’ grizzly has a peculiarly bad reputation among the 
Indians in that country, who upon dry land can hardly be 
induced to face ‘ Hoots’ or ‘ Noon,’ as they call the grizzly and 
cinnamon. Most of the skins sent to Wrangel are those of 
bears strangled in nooses, like big rabbit-snares, which are set 
in their paths, or else of bears shot down by men on snow-shoes 
in the deep snow of early spring, or shot on the river banks from 
acanoe. Hereitis aswell to say that I know of two instances in 
ee Tee 
