per- 

 stub. 

 even 

 mere 

 adow 

 guish 

 silent 

 thing 



ribs. 



stole 

 d ran 

 point, 

 spruce 

 of the 

 ig was 



nd its 



Bear Traits 



parently smaller, and, I think, a yearling or 

 two-year old black bear, raced out of the 

 bushes on the other side, and escaped without 

 a shot. Furious at losing both, I rushed into 

 the bushes to see if there were any more, and 

 a third, a cub, with a yelp of dismay, for I had 

 nearly trodden on him, scuttled up the spruce 

 stub. Walking around until I got him against 

 the light in the western sky, I am sorry to say 

 I shot and killed him. He was no larger than 

 a collie dog, and might much better have been 

 left to grow. Though she must have heard 

 him, and had the darkness to cover her ap- 

 proach, his faithless mother never returned, 

 but by her rapid flight helped to dispel in my 

 mind another historic illusion as to the invari- 

 able ferocity of she-bears. 



Of course bears are not always so timid 

 about the scent of man as in thfi two cases I 

 have mentioned. I am inclined to think that 

 those were, perhaps, rather exceptional. Sev- 

 eral times I have known grizzly bears, and 

 oncr^ a black — which in my experience has 

 appeared to be the more cautious species — to 

 come boldly to baits around which our scent 

 must have been much more in evidence than 

 at either of the times just mentioned. At the 



347 



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