HUNTING THE GREAT BROWN BEAR OF ALASKA 333 



ERITZI ALWAYS TOOK A NAP AFTER DINNER, SLEEPING JUST AS A BABY WOULD 



are less ferocious than the grizzlies, but 

 the evidence is conflicting. Certainly 

 they are more powerful and at close 

 quarters correspondingly dangerous. 

 They come out of hibernation early in 

 the spring, usually in April. When the 

 salmon begins to run they feed largely on 

 them, and on this account have been 

 called fish bears, or fish-eating bears, 

 although other bears have the same 

 habit. They eat a great variety of other 

 food, however, including kelp and shell- 

 fish secured about the mouths of streams 

 and along tide flats, and also berries, 

 roots, ground squirrels, and mice, ob- 

 tained on higher ground. 



The brown bears of Alaska will doubt- 

 less become very rare or extinct at no 

 very distant date. Such formidable car- 

 nivorous animals, even though not in- 

 clined to attack human beings, are com- 

 monly regarded as a menace to the safety 

 of travelers, and therefore undeserving 

 of protection. Already they have become 

 scarce on Kodiak Island, where formerly 

 very abundant, and on the Alaska Penin- 

 sula, though still fairly numerous, they 

 are being killed at a rate probably greatly 

 in excess of their increase. In the heavy 

 forests of southeast Alaska and in the 

 region of Mount Saint Elias they may 

 hold their own longer. 



