200 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



overhanging a thickly-wooded glade, when I again 

 heard the rush of some heavy animal below me. I 

 cocked the rifle and peered down through the bushes 

 and trees. Through an opening I presently saw a 

 black bear some 60 yards below, who, unfortunately 

 for himself, undertook to stop for a moment and look 

 up towards the noise that had disturbed him. The 

 chance was a pretty one. I fired straight down at the 

 centre of a black furry back, heard a scuffle and a 

 moan as the bear passed out of sight, and all was 

 still. We cautiously made our way down to the cover 

 below, and equally cautiously crawled through the 

 bushes towards where the bear was last seen, and 

 found him stone-dead. 



He happened to be the only black bear we shot 

 during the trip. This variety is distinguished from 

 the ordinary range grizzly by a smaller head and 

 claws, a smaller body generally, a milder disposition, 

 and silky coal-black fur. The cubs of the black bear 

 are occasionally brown, but they invariably, as I 

 believe, turn black in colour with maturity. 



The ordinary range grizzly, including the cinnamon 

 and silver-tip, possesses the true grizzly characteristics 

 of a large wide head, long five-inch claws on the fore- 

 feet, great muscular strength, and an exceedingly 

 savage disposition when full maturity is reached. 



We returned well satisfied to camp that night, with 

 two bear skins and skulls, to find an old ram's head 

 adorning a conspicuous position by our camp-fire, 

 killed by my friend in a canon west of the Divide. 

 He reported having seen a band of old rams, and 

 that he had wounded and lost another. The head he 

 brought back measured 38 inches along the curve, 

 and 16 inches in circumference at the base, and was 



