Fact versus Fiction 257 



I have come, for instance, to see how inevitable it was 

 that, with the exception of here and there a really scien- 

 tific naturalist, hardly any of those who have written 

 about the grizzly have written from personal experience. 

 And I have come to understand how naturally, under 

 these circumstances, more romance than truth has found 

 its way into print, and why it is that so very little of what 

 is set down actually touches the real character of the ani- 

 mal. And I have thought in this chapter to speak of a 

 few of the more widely current of these misconceptions, 

 and to cite a few amusing instances of their method of 

 growth. 



And first let us quite candidly face the simple truth 

 that, as a rule, the old hunters and trappers, however 

 well meaning they may be, are not to be relied upon for 

 information that is worth much from a scientific stand- 

 point. I well remember the first one I ever saw. He 

 was an old, grizzled fellow, all covered with scars, which 

 he claimed were the results of his encounters with grizzly 

 bears, mountain lions, and Indian arrows. This old 

 chap had heard that there was a man in town that was 

 going bear hunting, and he took occasion to seek me out 

 and have a talk with me about the trip. 



He said that as sure as I went hunting grizzlies with 

 the gun I then had (it was my old .44 Winchester) I 

 would be killed, as it was not powerful enough to kill a 

 bear. He declared emphatically that no bear could be 

 killed with one shot, and that the animals would attack 

 a person at sight. He maintained that he had shot griz- 

 zlies that had gone a mile or more after receiving several 

 mortal wounds, and that, when finally overtaken, they 



