378 Wild Beasts 



it finally took eight men to kill. Lewis said he would 

 "rather encounter two Indiansthan one grizzly bear." 



On the other hand, this powerful and ferocious creature 

 may occasionally be destroyed or beaten off with seemingly 

 inadequate means. Single Indians sometimes killed it; 

 white hunters with " pea-rifles " often ; and Roosevelt 

 reports that he had a stallion that disabled one by a kick 

 in the head. A similar account is given by Colonel 

 Davidson ("Travels in Upper India") of an incurably 

 vicious English thoroughbred at Lucknqw, which fractured 

 a tiger's skull when condemned to be devoured by this 

 beast. Major Leveson, who had met most species of 

 Ursidce, regarded the grizzly as " by far the largest and 

 most formidable of his race, . . . one of the most dan- 

 gerous antagonists a hunter can meet with." But he 

 knew that weapons before which the black rhinoceros and 

 African elephant. are powerless, prove too much for this 

 animal also, and therefore refers " the numerous accidents 

 that have occurred in hunting the grizzly to insufficiency 

 of weight in the projectiles generally used." If the hunter 

 be "armed with a large-bore breech-loading rifle, and keep 

 his wits about him," he has the advantage, barring accident. 

 But even then, " should the bear not be shot through the 

 brain or heart, unless his assailant maintain his presence 

 of mind, and put in his second barrel well and quickly, 

 the chances are that the latter will come to grief, if his 

 comrades fail to come to the rescue." 



Leveson relates the following experience of his own : 

 " We were encamped on the Wind River . . . when at 

 daybreak one dreary morning a cry of alarm rang through 



