248 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



their holes are very fat, but they lose their condition rapidly 

 after eating the fresh spring grass on the mountain-side. 

 Whether this also applies to she-bears, whose cubs are born 

 four to six weeks before the mother leaves her den in March 

 I do not know. 



During our visit to the valley in the spring we saw a great 

 many big bears, and one black, which (the former) seemed 

 to differ greatly both in size and colour. There were brown 

 bears, some turning grey, cinnamon, and, biggest of all, 

 silver-tips, several of which had white collars, and also were 

 of various shades. These were "grizzlies" here, while on 

 the Pacific slope and in some other parts the grey-brown 

 bear is the so-called " Old Ephraim," of the old hunters, and 

 those delightful stories of Western life. Sir Samuel Baker says 

 that that alone is the true grizzly. 



There must be a great deal of inter-breeding to account for 

 all these varieties, and Andersen tells me that black bears will 

 breed with cinnamon and brown, also that black and brown 

 cubs are often seen with the same mother. He says that silver- 

 tips only breed among themselves ; they are the biggest and live 

 near the snow-line, and the higher the bigger they are ; the 

 older the greyer, and one has been seen quite white. After my 

 return home I looked up the best authorities on this subject and 

 append the result : 



Apart from polar bears most authorities only recognise two 

 species of bears the grizzly and the black; all others are 

 varieties of both species, and these are infinite and include 

 all shades of colour, grey, brown, red, and reddish. They 

 differ not only in colour but also in shape of skull and general 

 form. As Roosevelt remarks, the name of " grizzly " has 

 reference to its character and not to its colour, and should, he 

 supposes, be spelt " grisly," in the sense of horrible. It is 

 so spelt by Cuvier. 



Bears inter-breed like dogs, hence the varieties in colour, 

 size, and shape ; not only the big ones among themselves, 

 but these also it is said by some with the very much smaller 

 black bears unless hunger prove stronger than love. 



Most hunters have seen black and brown cubs together, and 

 Dr. Rainsford met with three cubs of one sow, one almost 

 yellow, one almost black, and one nearly grey, and notes 



