208 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



of his haunts were not after Bears, but gold, and did not 

 trouble him much. During these times, he was, no doubt, 

 a surly customer, and did not trouble himself to get out of 

 the way. But since the war, things have changed. Men 

 swarmed West, armed with repeaters. The power of. the 

 rifle was steadily on the increase, and the pressure of civili- 

 zation felt more and more in the wildest parts of the land. 

 The result of these years of attack is most evident in the 

 habits of the Grizzly Bear as he is to-day. I do not for a 

 moment mean to say that he is not a formidable adversary; 

 but I do say, without hesitation, that the danger of his 

 attack, in the present day, has been grossly exaggerated. 



I remember meeting some hunters in 1868 who had killed 

 a large Gr,izzly. They had got him in a gully between 

 them, a man on each side and the Bear down in the mid- 

 dle, and they had put thirteen Henry bullets into him. 

 Both of them had been nearly clawed before he gave up the 

 ghost; and this experience of theirs, at that time, I am 

 disposed to think was not an uncommon one. But there 

 was just an illustration of the inadequacy of armament 

 with which to attack such game. All who have handled 

 the old Henry Model will remember just what the gun could 

 and could not do. It was an excellent weapon, when cut 

 off short, for Buffalo-running, and a good Indian gun, 

 and as such was greatly prized during those dangerous 

 times on the plains. But the charge of powder was light, 

 as was the lead, and in front of a big Bear it was, of neces- 

 sity, a most unreliable weapon. Granted the sportsman is a 

 fair shot, and a man of ordinary nerve, with a good weapon, 

 and you materially alter the conditions in his favor. A 

 fifty-caliber bullet, with a hundred grains of powder 

 behind it, will stop almost anything; and a line-shot, that 

 is, a shot in line of the spine, taking effect anywhere below 

 the nose or above the hips, will drop a Bear in his tracks. 



I account for a large number of the stories told of charg- 

 ing Bears in this way: The game is generally sighted on the 

 side of a hill. He is making his way up some ravine, and 

 the hunter stalks him from below. When fired at, whether he 



