38 The Grizzly Bear 



I would send a distant shot after him; but, as a general 

 rule, during this first winter, I paid him the respect to 

 keep out of his way; and he seemed somewhat ceremo- 

 nious in return. Not by any means that he feared me; 

 but he did not invite the combat, and I did not venture 

 it." Later on he "considered it a point of honor to give 

 battle in every case." 



But had he been merely a hunter, merely even an 

 uncouth knight-errant of the mountains, sworn to per- 

 petual pursuit of the grizzly dragon, his story would not 

 concern us. It was because he dealt in living grizzlies as 

 well as dead ones; because for all his sworn enmity he 

 admired, understood, and even loved them, and was the 

 first white man to domesticate them; because, although 

 he was neither a student nor even an educated man, he 

 was yet, within the limits of his interest, an accurate ob- 

 server, that I rank him so high as a light-giver on the sub- 

 ject of these animals. The story of Adams's career is told 

 in a book called "The Adventures of James Capen Adams, 

 Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California," 

 written by Theodore H. Hittell, published in i860, and 

 long since out of print. I have already told how the dis- 

 covery of this book excited my interest in hunting, and in 

 the grizzly; but some years ago, wishing to refresh my 

 memory in regard to it, I obtained a copy only after 

 much searching. 



Adams, in this book, describes several of his expedi- 

 tions; one undertaken in May, 1853, in company with 

 a young Texan named Sykesey and two Indians, in the 

 course of which he visited Washington and Oregon Terri- 

 tories, and after collecting many animals, including both 



