Bear Traits 



side, giving her a rather uncanny look of 

 mingled watchfulness and waggishness ; at 

 such times she appeared to be making up 

 her mind whether to sneak off, to charge, or 

 to dance ! This is a common attitude, and 

 one I have frequently observed when hunt- 

 ing. The effect is of a pretty direct line 

 from nose to rump in contrast with the usual 

 outline of the bear on all fours, where the 

 shoulders are highest and the head and rump 

 lowest. This attitude has something comical 

 about it, and when seen assures the hunter 

 that the animal is alert. 



I watched this interesting family for about 

 a week, and left them undisturbed until au- 

 tumn. At that time bears were plentiful. In 

 the same month and near the same place I 

 saw eleven in one day, two black and nine 

 silver tips, which I think was not far from the 

 usual relative abundance of the two species 

 in the Big Horn Mountains fifteen and twenty 

 years ago. 



I remember these incidents more distinctly 

 than others that occurred to me. Unfortu- 

 nately, in those days I thought, with many 

 others, that game would continue in abun- 

 dance much longer than proved to be the 



229 



