22 The Grizzly Bear 



be termed the variegated bear, for they are found occa- 

 sionally of a black, grizzly, brown, or red color. There is 

 every reason to believe them to be of precisely the same 

 species. Those of different colors are killed together, as 

 in the case of these two, as we found a white and bay 

 associated together on the Missouri; and some nearly 

 white were seen in this neighborhood by the hunters. 

 Indeed, it is not common to find any two bears of the 

 same color, and if the difference in color were to constitute 

 a distinction of species, the number would increase to 

 almost twenty. Soon afterward the hunters killed a female 

 bear with two cubs. The mother was black with a consid- 

 erable intermixture of white hairs and a white spot on the 

 breast. One of the cubs was jet black and the other of a 

 light reddish-brown or bay color. The poil of these vare- 

 gated bears is much finer, longer, and more abundant 

 than that of the common black bear, but the most striking 

 differences between them are that the former are larger 

 and have longer tusks, and longer as well as blunter 

 talons, that they prey more on other animals, that they lie 

 neither so long nor so closely in winter quarters, and that 

 they never climb trees, however closely pressed by the 

 hunters. These variegated bears, though specifically the 

 same with those we met on the Missouri, are by no means 

 so ferocious, probably because the scarcity of game and 

 habit of living on roots may have weaned them from the 

 practice of attacking and devouring animals. Still, how- 

 ever, they are not so passive as the common black bear, 

 which is also to be found here, for they have already 

 fought with our hunters, though with less fury than those 

 on the other side of the mountain." 



