AN OPEN SEASON 211 



being first cornered or attacked; but not one 

 has ever attacked me. In every case that I 

 have seen, when they attacked they were chased, 

 cornered, or wounded, and were fighting in self- 

 defence, or fighting because they thought it their 

 only hope. 



I saw a grizzly cornered and killed the second 

 day after he came out of his hibernating den. 

 A grizzly after hibernation after fasting for 

 four months and sleeping most of the time is 

 supposed to come out hungry, ragged, and 

 weak. But this grizzly evidently had not read 

 how he was expected to perform. After being 

 chased by dogs through snow for a half day 

 and cornered, he acted as though for at least 

 four months he had been training for the fight 

 of his life. 



The grizzly, cornered between deep snowdrifts 

 and a rocky wall, was fighting the dogs when we 

 galloped up. Realizing that to escape he must 

 cut his way out, he proceeded to do so. 



There were two hunters and several dogs. 

 When the scrap started I "spectatored" from a 

 safety-first spruce limb twenty feet up. I had 

 several good looks at the grizzly in action as he 

 rushed the line. He was mad, but not at all 

 worried. Like lightning he leaped, jumped, 

 dodged, and struck right and left whenever 

 the dogs crowded too close. 



