420 



The National Geographic Magazine 



FLASHLIGHT: YOUNG BULL MOOSE GAZING WITH INTEREST AT APPROACHING JACK 

 LIGHT: NICTAU LAKE, NEW BRUNSWICK, JULY 2, I907 



hundreds of experienced sources, I think 

 it would be safe to say that there are 

 more persons injured or killed through 

 the attacks of domestic animals or wild 

 animals in confinement, or partial confine- 

 ment, in a single season than by all the 

 wild animals of the forest in the past 

 fifty years. 



Tales of savage beasts largely emanate 

 from two classes, the commercial nature 

 faker and the novice, in which latter 

 class may frequently be included land- 

 lookers, surveyors, miners, the lumber- 

 jack, and the temporary homesteader, 

 since many of these are wholly unac- 

 quainted with wild animal life and very 

 often possess a vivid imagination, built 

 up partly upon fear and partly upon a 

 desire to report startling tales equal to 

 the best that appear in the local press. 

 True it is that the grizzly bear, badly 

 wounded or defending its young, may oc- 



casionally show fight, but the old day,, 

 when this powerful animal voluntarily 

 stood its ground, is gone forever. At 

 least in every district where the repeating 

 rifle has taught the lesson of man's over- 

 powering mastery, and today not a single 

 experienced sportsman, naturalist, guide,, 

 or any reliable trapper will relate or un- 

 derwrite any of these tales of perilous ad- 

 ventures with the wild and harassed ani- 

 mals of the American forests. The 

 pestiferous mosquito and black fly may 

 sometimes force the bravest hunter or 

 trapper into a rapid retreat, but no man 

 need ever hesitate to go voluntarily and', 

 unarmed into any so-called wilderness re- 

 sorts of this country through a fear of 

 menacing beasts. And in concluding this 

 branch let it be said emphatically that the 

 more dangerous the supposed traits of 

 any particular animal, the more the cer- 

 tainty of its being the one now most fear- 



