X 
THE BEAR 
371 
this have been, unless a true specimen of that 
variety ? 
There can be little doubt that bears of different 
kinds intermingle occasionally by cross breeds, and 
many are met with which do not exactly correspond 
with the colouring which distinguishes the varieties 
already mentioned ; but in my opinion those distinct 
varieties actually exist, and any departure occasioned 
by cross breeding is simply an accident. Eighteen 
months before my visit to the Big Horn range, the 
present Lord Lonsdale, together with a large party, 
was hunting upon the same ground, and at that 
time the country, being new to British sportsmen, 
was undisturbed. The bears were so numerous and 
unsophisticated that the party bagged thirty-two, 
and game of all kinds indigenous to the locality 
was in the superlative. It is astonishing that 
any game remains after the persistent attacks of 
gunners, especially in such countries, where open 
plains expose the animals to the sight of man. In 
the Big Horn range, at high altitudes of from 8000 
to 12,000 feet, the open grass prairie-ground pre¬ 
dominates. There are plateaux and hill-tops ; deep 
canyons or clefts, from 1500 to 2000 feet sheer, like 
sudden rifts in the earth’s surface; long secluded 
valleys, with forest-covered bottoms extending for 
many miles, and slopes of every conceivable gra¬ 
dient descending to a lower level of frightfully 
broken ground, joining the foot of the main range 
of Rocky Mountains at a distance of from 70 
to 90 miles. There are also isolated patches of 
