Bear Traits 



Ordinarily, however, my experience has been 

 that bears were not flurried when I suddenly 

 came upon them. They impressed me as if 

 they were always keeping in mind the place 

 toward which they wished to retreat in the 

 event of danger, and for this place, which was 

 invariably a piece of rough ground or dense 

 timber, they made off with all possible speed, 

 not seeming to lose their heads. 



Frequently I have been able to watch bears 

 for some time while myself unobserved. With 

 other game I have very often done this even 

 when within close range, not wishing to kill 

 creatures needlessly, or without a good object ; 

 but with bears, rny experience has been that 

 chances to secure them come so seldom as to 

 make it very distinctly worth while improving 

 any that do come, and I have not spent much 

 time watching any bear unless he was in a 

 place where I could not get at him, or else 

 was so close at hand that I was not afraid 

 of his getting away. On one occasion the 

 bear was hard at work digging up squirrel or 

 gopher caches on the side of a pine-clad hill. 

 He looked rather like a big badger when so 

 engaged. On two other occasions the bear 

 was working around a carcass preparatory to 



235 



