THE GEIZZLY BEAK. 205 



learn, Bears are not common in that region. So in the 

 South and West. In the unoccupied regions of Southern 

 California, and northward, in the parallel valleys of the 

 coast ranges, twenty years ago, the Grizzly was frequently 

 to be found. In that region, last spring, I discovered for 

 myself that large Bears are now rare, and all Bears 

 uncommon. 



Wonderful stories have been told of the huge size and 

 great ferocity of the Alaskan Grizzly; but skins from that 

 region do not seem to be much larger than those procured 

 from other x^laces, and I have only seen one unusually large 

 skull of a bear killed there. Of Alaska, however, I can not 

 speak personally, as I have never hunted there. 



It has often been claimed by frontiersmen that Bears 

 change their range during the fall months, and move down 

 from the higher and less accessible regions, in search of fruit 

 and berries; but I think this migration is a good deal exag- 

 gerated. Whether it is that, in late years, in a great many 

 of the valleys where fruit abounds, cattle have been driven 

 in, or whether it is that the approach of man makes the 

 game more shy, I do not know; but larger Bears seem 

 seldom to leave their lonely haunts among the mountain- 

 tops, or, if they do, make but short journeys downward, from 

 which they return in a day. Smaller Grizzlies and Black 

 Bears do seem to push their way close down to the cattle- 

 ranches, in their search for fruit; but the time is past when 

 a hunting-i^arty, on their greenhorn trip, can kill, as some 

 friends of mine did, ten years ago, more than a dozen Bears 

 within one day's march of the cattle-ranch. 



In food, the Grizzly prefers variety. He is fond of tneat 

 when he can get it; and thus he is generally to be found not 

 far away from a large band of Elk. If you strike a good Elk 

 country — that is, one in which the Elk have been for some 

 time — you are pretty sure to get good chances at Bears. But 

 failing meat, he makes out very well on nuts, acorns, etc.; 

 and the fattest Grizzlies I ever killed were those that had 

 been feeding for weeks on the x)ine-nuts that the industrious 

 mountain squirrels stow away in such great plenty in the 



