94 WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIETl, NATIONAL PABK. 



Zone, where acres of the brilhaut yellow lilies covered many of the 

 open slopes between the groves of wliite-barkecl pines. Here the 

 bears were reveling in a feast of the jnicy bulbs. Near (iranite Park, 

 in numerous places over the mountain sides, they had torn up the sod 

 in areas of a few yards to several square rods in extent, tearing it up 

 continuously from the edge and turning out the bulbs 4 or 5 inches 

 below the surface and rolling the sod back, first one way and then 

 another, until the ground had the appearance of having been plowed. 

 On both sides of Gunsight Pass, at the lower edge of Blackfeet Gla- 

 cier, on Flat Top Mountain, and at Elizabeth Lake extensile areas were 

 found plowed o\-er by the bears for these bulbs, each one of which, the 

 size of a small onion and much more palatable, would make a pleasant 

 mouthful. 



Prolial)ly these liears obtain many other bulbs and roots and some 

 insects and larvae while digging for these bulbs. At times even 

 late in summer large quantities of green vegetation are eaten, as 

 shown by the sign, but the particular sjoecies of plants are not easily 

 recognized. The tender young flower stalks of the bear gi'ass (Xero- 

 phyllu7n tenax) are eaten to some extent, but as the blossoms begin to 

 develop they soon become tough and hard. Some of the white, ten- 

 der mountain thistles had been cut off, evidently by bears, and the 

 COM' parsnip {Ileracleum lanatum) had been eaten while young and 

 tender. On the west slope of the mountains and in Waterton Valley 

 many trees had been peeled near the base for the layer of sweet cam- 

 bium underneath the bark. A mouthful of bark had been bitten 

 loose near the ground and pulled off as high as it woidd strip from 

 the trunk of a tree, and then another and another until a consider- 

 able area of the trunk was left bare. In midsummer this growing 

 wood is covered with a layer of soft gelatinous tissue that later 

 hardens into the annual growth of wood, but at this time is sweet and 

 nutritious. "With the lower incisors the bears scrape the wood up- 

 ward and thus scoop into their mouths the soft cambium layer and 

 apparently get a good square meal from the trunk of a tree peeled 

 halfway around and as high as they can conveniently reach. Hun- 

 dreds of trees may be found tJiat have thus furnished nueals to the 

 bears. The lodgepole pine and P]ngelmnnn spruce were the species 

 usually choseji, but some white-barked pines had been peeled, and 

 on the west slope the tamarack (LarLv occidentnlls) seemed to fur- 

 nish the favorite bear food; even as late as the last of August it had 

 a pleasant flavor. Most of the trees, however, were peeled in mid- 

 smnmer, when the cambium was at its best. During August the bears 

 were feeding extensively on berries and fruit, of which they obtained 

 a considerable variet}'. The little red blueberries were scarce in 

 1017, but in places a few were found and stripped off. leaves and all, 

 to make them go as far as possible. The abundant little red bear- 



