THE GRIZZLY BEAR. 19 



certain forms of animal life. He will expect, and will be 

 right in his expectation, to find that the carnivores arc 

 comparatively few, and that the herbivorous and insec- 

 tivorous tribes abound. Throughout the -vast region we 

 have described beasts of prey are almost unknown ; there 

 are neither lions nor tigers, panthers, hyenas, nor leopards. 

 The most formidable — indeed the only formidable — quad- 

 ruped, is the Grizzly Bear ; the significantly named Ursics 

 ferox. 



The " Grizzly," as the American hunters familiarly call 

 him, is found throughout the solitudes which comprise 

 the Rocky Mountains and the plains eastward of them to 

 latitude 61°. In size he is gigantic, frequently weighing 

 eight hundred pounds, and measuring eight feet and a half 

 to nine and even ten feet in length. He is armed with long 

 and strong claws, which cut like a chisel when he strikes 

 a blow with them. His tail is almost rudimentary. His 

 strength may be estimated from the fact that the animal 

 has been known to drag easily, for a considerable distance, 

 the carcass of a bison weighing one thousand pounds. It 

 is recorded that a veteran hunter, having slain a very large 

 bison, and marked the spot, left the body for the purpose 

 of obtaining assistance to skin and cut it up. On his 

 return no bison was visible ! He was at a loss to account 

 for its disappearance, but after a long search discovered it 

 in a deep pit, which had been dug for it by a felonious 

 "grizzly." The bear had carried it off, and "interred" it 

 during the hunter's absence. 



Grizzly's audacity is equal to his strength, as the fol- 

 lowing incident, related by Sir John Richardson, will show. 



