TRAMP DAYS OF GRIZZLY CUBS 175 



Curiosity seems to be the most striking trait 

 in grizzly bear nature. A grizzly is ever alert for 

 anything unusual, anything that is new. New 

 scents, new sounds, new figures, or even unusual 

 or peculiar actions on the part of wild life, never 

 fail to interest him. Ofttimes this extreme curi- 

 osity causes him to approach close to the inter- 

 esting object in order that it may be seen to 

 better advantage or its peculiarities compre- 

 hended. Every cub is full of curiosity. 



The prospector was not a hunter. He saw 

 the cubs three or four times that autumn and 

 occasionally crossed their tracks. Once he came 

 upon all three in the woods where they were 

 digging, perhaps for some mice. Another time 

 he saw all three on a rocky mountain side busily 

 engaged eating the red, ripened fruit of the 

 wild rose. A third time he saw them cross, 

 single file, an opening by a beaver pond, cubs 

 two and three carefully stepping in the tracks of 

 the lame leader. Late that November, while 

 returning from an examination of a mineral 

 outcrop some miles from his cabin, he encount- 

 ered their tracks, trailed them in the newly 

 fallen snow a short distance, and found where 

 they had all entered a den of their own digging. 

 In this den the youngsters spent the winter. 



Later when I visited this den it was simply a 

 hole in the gravelly mountain side about six feet 



