190S.] 



MAMM.ILS. 



223 



Ursus horribilis Orel. Grizzty Bear. 



Grizzly bears, probably referable to this species, occur throughout 

 the Eocky Mountain range and its eastern spurs west of the Mac- 

 kenzie, north to the Arctic coast. Specimens of grizzly bears from 

 this region are yery rare in museums, hence it is impossible to speak 

 Avith assurance regarding the species. 



We were informed that grizzlies were often killed in the Xahanni 

 ^lountains. and that seyeral had been shot near Fort Liard during 

 recent years. A number of skins are traded annually at Forts Liard 

 and Xelson. At Fort Xorman I saw seyeral skins which had been 

 taken in the mountains to the westward. They were of course with- 

 out skulls, and lacked also claws. They were in general of a nearly 

 uniform dark yellowish-brown, the underfur frequently oyerlaid with 

 long yellowish hair. 



From C. P. Gaudet. of Fort Good Hope, I obtained the claws of a 

 large bear said to haye been taken near the mouth of the Mackenzie. 

 The fore claws are long and comparatiyely straight. An imperfect 

 skin obtained at Arctic Eed Riyer is smaller, but has similar claws. 

 It is proyisionally referred to this species. The termination of the 

 range west of the Mackenzie Delta, locally called Black Mountain, 

 i^: inhabited by large grizzlies, which are said to be yery sayage when 

 they come out of their dens in the spring. 



This bear Avas first recorded from the region by Mackenzie, who 

 during his exploration of Peace Eiyer noted the species below the 

 mouth of ' Sinew ' Eiyer, a southern tributary entering the Peace 

 a short distance east of the mountains.^ Eichardson states that the 

 species " inhabits the Eocky ^Mountains and the plains lying to 

 the eastward of them, as far as latitude 61°," and that Drummond 

 found it common in the wooded country skirting the eastern base of 

 the Eocky Mountains and about the source of the Peace.^ Eoss giyes 

 this species as not rare in the mountain ranges of the Mackenzie 

 Eiver region.^ About the last of June, 1894, Frank Eussell killed 

 a grizzly bear in the delta of the Mackenzie. Eussell does not de- 

 scribe its color, but states that it weighed about TOO pounds, and that 

 its specific gravity was so great " that it required considerable effort 

 to raise the carcass to the surface." The skull, now in the collection 

 of the Uniyersity of Iowa, has been examined by Dr. C. Hart Mer- 

 riam and pronounced to be a true grizzh^ 



In the summer of 1895 J. Alden Loring found grizzly bears to be 

 rather common in the mountains in the Jasper House region, where 



^ yoyages to Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 160, 1801. 



^ Fauna Boreali-Americana, I, pp. 28, 29, 1829. (See Drummond's itinerary, 

 p. 60.) 



^ Can. NaT. and Geol., yil, p. 139, 1862. 

 '^Expl. in Far North, p. 246, 1898. 



