IN THE FAR WEST. 3/ 



tude with which it can generally retreat to cover or charge 

 its foe, and to the often inaccessible haunts which it frequents ; 

 yet it is done occasionally by experienced hunters. A small 

 part}- of English gentlemen killed seven last year in Colorado, 

 two sportsmen killed six in Dakota in a month, and I knew 

 a hunter in Montana to kill one with an army revolver by 

 firing at it from a tree. Numbers are poisoned annually in 

 several parts of the West, especially in Colorado, Montana, 

 California, and British America ; hence they are getting- scarce 

 in the more frequented sections of the country, and the sur- 

 vivors keep to regions remote from settlements, except during 

 unusually severe weather, when they make raids on farmyards. 

 They are almost as abundant as ever though in Dakota, Mon- 

 tana, Wyoming, and Idaho ; but the sooner they begin to 

 decrease in these Territories the better will farmers and stock- 

 raisers like it, as they are considered anything but pleasant 

 acquaintances. 



I have hunted the grizzly occasionally, but generally in 

 company with others, and while we killed one now and then, 

 yet no person could tell which had given the death-shot, so that 

 none could claim the honour. I bagged a large male myself 

 one time, but it was done in such a prosaic manner that the 

 only interesting thing about it was the death. 1 was passing 

 through a rugged precipice, trying to stalk a band of moun- 

 tain sheep, and on reaching a small abutment of loose rocks 

 I saw grizzly lapping up some water beneath me. Taking 

 deliberate aim at his head, near the ear, I fired, and a feu- 

 moments later he fell over as stiff as a stone. On examining 

 him I found that the bullet had entered the brain through 

 the ear, and produced death almost immediately. The whole 

 thing was so simple that I scarcely felt a thrill of pleasure on 

 gazing at my trophy, and I left it where it fell in the most 

 unconcerned manner until my hunt after the sheep was over, 

 and then I had it sent for by the pioneer at whose house I was 

 stopping. 



Grizzlies are most destructive visitors to a camp, a fact 

 which I learned on more than one occasion. The most dis- 

 agreeable visit that I ever received from one, however, wn< 



