202 The Grizzly Bear 



lying over the country like a great white blanket. Only 

 on the slides, which have been swept by the tremendous 

 avalanches that usually come down in March, is the 

 ground clear. Yet on one of our trips to this region we saw 

 where thirteen grizzlies came down the mountain side in 

 a single night. They all came down an open place not 

 over half a mile across, and it was in following their trails 

 back up the mountain that I found the six dens hereafter 

 mentioned. These were all natural caves among the 

 cliffs, their mouths well concealed by thick firs and juni- 

 per brush, and the animals, in coming out, had broken 

 through some five feet of snow. As it is, therefore, not the 

 melting snow that arouses them, it would seem that there 

 must be some kind of nature's alarm clock, known to the 

 bears, that informs them when it is time to get up. 



It is some months before the young cubs begin to forage 

 for themselves, even in part. Dr. Hornaday, speaking of 

 bears in captivity, writes me : " I think the average age at 

 which a grizzly cub begins to feed independently of his 

 mother's milk is about four months. Of course, the be- 

 ginning on solid food is made very slowly, and the young- 

 sters nurse vigorously all summer." 



I am, however, sure that this weaning process begins 

 later in the wild state. I have many times seen a mother 

 grizzly digging roots and feeding on grasses in August 

 while her cubs were running about or lying in the sun, 

 and seemed to take no interest whatever in the food that 

 she was so busy in getting. Yet a bear cub, when the 

 time comes, knows just as much about the proper food of 

 the bears in the locality where it was born as does the 

 oldest bear on the range. 



