THE GRIZZLY BEAR. 211 



I would earnestly advise the beginner not to go after 

 Bears alone. Even if a man is sure of his nerve, a cartridge 

 will sometimes stick or miss fire. Circumstances have made 

 it necessary for me to hunt a good deal by myself, and most 

 of my Bears I happen to have killed when alone; but I would 

 always prefer to take another man with me. A .friend of 

 mine, an artist, tells me that only two years ago he came 

 near being killed by a sow, whose cubs he shot, while some 

 distance from camp. He was painting when the Bears hove 

 in sight. He shot at a cub, and thought he killed it ; then shot 

 the other cub and knocked it down; and then he shot the 

 mother. When the first cub tried to crawl away, he shot it 

 again; ditto the second cub. Then the mother woke up, and 

 seeing him attacking her children, she went for him. He had 

 only two cartridges left in his repeater; he hit her with both, 

 but did not succeed in killing her; and if it had not been 

 for his dog, who attacked her behind while he bolted, she 

 would have torn him to pieces; and, as it was, he did not 

 get any one of the three Bears. He was no tenderfoot either, 

 but a thorough hunter, and a man who has killed a good 

 deal of game in the West. 



Personally, I have no feeling against trapping Bears. The 

 Grizzly is fast becoming extinct; he must inevitably suc- 

 cumb to the ranchman's poison and the hunter's trap. I 

 would sooner, of course, stalk and kill one Bear in the 

 " open" than kill twenty in the trap, and it is many years 

 since I have shot a trapped Bear. But in view of the way 

 in which all furred game is taken — in view, also, of the fact 

 that all the Territories offer rewards for Bear-scalps — it is 

 simply nonsense to talk about trapping Bears as being either 

 unsportsmanlike or cruel. In the long run, I think it will 

 be found that forty -pound traps are the best. Smaller traps 

 usually scare the game, and seldom hold a big animal. 

 They are rather dangerous things to set, and a pair of 

 strong iron clamps should be used to screw on and hold 

 down the springs, on their being handled. It takes a little 

 longer, but, unless you have had considerable experience in 

 setting traps, it is worth while to take trouble to avoid 



