Witts ini$ #e 



Trapping the grizzly has become a non-essential 

 occupation. It is a waste of energy, because rarely 

 successful. Now and then a bear is trapped, but it 

 is usually a young bear of but little experience, a 

 mother who is trying to protect her cubs, or a bear 

 whose momentary curiosity caused him to forget 

 his customary caution. 



Formerly it was not difficult to trap a grizzly. 

 But he quickly learned to avoid the menace of 

 traps. The bear sees through all the camouflage of 

 the trapper. Deodorized and concealed traps, 

 traps near the bait and far from it, traps placed 

 singly and in clusters these, and even the slen- 

 der concealed string of a spring gun, he usually de- 

 tects and avoids. 



I spent a number of days with a trapper who felt 

 certain that he would secure the thousand-dollar 

 reward for the capture of an outlaw cattle-killing 

 grizzly. Earlier than usual the cattlemen drove the 

 cattle from the summer range. The trapper took 

 an old cow to a selected spot near the end of a 

 gulch, picketed her, and surrounded her with 

 spring guns and traps. The outer line of defense 

 consisted of three spring guns which guarded three 

 avenues of approach to the cow. The strings to 

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