BEAR HUNTING. 
287 
who hunt them, are as numerous almost as the Bear that are 
killed. They are not an animai that permits of a system in 
hunting them, and it is for this reason that they are so dange¬ 
rous and difficult to destroy. The experience of one hunt may 
cost a limb or a life in the next one, if used as a criterion ; and 
fatal, indeed, is the mistake, if it comes to grappling with an 
animal whose gigantic strength enables him to lift a horse in 
his huge arms, and bear it away as a prize. There is one terri 
ble exception to this rule; one habit of the animal may be 
certainly calculated on, but a daring heart only can take ad¬ 
vantage of it. 
“ The Grizzly Bear, like the Tiger and Lion, have their 
caves in which they live, but they use them principally as a 
safe lodging-place, when the cold of winter renders them torpid 
and disposed to sleep. To these caves they retire late in the 
fall, and they seldom venture out until the warmth of spring. 
Sometimes two occupy one cave, but this is not often the case, 
as the unsociability of the animal is proverbial, they preferring 
to be solitary and alone. A knowledge of the forests, and an 
occasional trailing for Bear, inform the hunter of these caves, 
and the only habit of the Grizzly Bear that can with certainty 
be taken advantage of is the one of his being in his cave alive, 
if at the proper season. And the hunter has the terrible liberty 
of entering his cave single-handed and there destroying him. 
Of this only method of hunting the Grizzly Bear we would 
attempt a description. 
“ The thought of entering a cave inhabited by one of the 
most powerful beasts of prey, is one calculated to try the 
strength of the best nerves; and when it is considered that the 
least trepidation, the slightest mistake, may cause, and probably 
will result to the hunter in instant death, it certainly exhibits 
the highest demonstration of physical courage to pursue such a 
method of hunting. Yet there are many persons in the forests 
of North America who engage in such perilous adventures with 
no other object in view than the sport / or a hearty meal. The 
hunter’s preparations to * beard the lion in his den,’ commence 
