e
intruder, would be to state an untruth. I was frightened, horribly
frightened, and with good reason. To suppose that he would not attack me
would have been absurd; I knew that in nine cases out of ten, the
grizzly bear is the assailant; that no animal in America will willingly
engage in combat with him, and that man himself shuns the encounter,
unless well mounted, and even then, the prudent hunter always gives "old
Ephraim," as the "mountain men" call him, a "wide berth," and rides on
without interfering with him, unless the ground is perfectly open, so
that his horse is not likely to be impeded.

The white hunter considers the killing of a grizzly bear a feat of
prowess equal to the destruction of _two_ Indians; while to the Indian,
the destruction of one of these animals is one of the greatest feats in
his life's history. Among Indian braves, a necklace of bear's claws is a
badge of honor, since they can only be worn by a man who has himself
slain the animals from which they have been taken. On the contrary, the
grizzly bear fears no antagonist; he attacks the largest animals on
sight. The moose, the elk, the buffalo, or wild horse, if caught is
instantly killed. A blow from his paw will lay open the flesh as if
gashed with an axe, and he can drag the body of a full grown buffalo, to
almost any distance. He rushes upon man without the slightest
hesitation, and frequently a dozen hunters will retreat at his approach.
Nearly twenty bullets have on some occasions been fired into the body of
a grizzly, without killing him, and only a shot through the brain or
heart is certainly mortal.

With such sanguinary fierceness of disposition and extraordinary
tenacity of life, it is no wonder the grizzly bear is a creature to be
dreaded. Had he the swiftness of the lion or tiger, his haunts would be
inapproachable by man, and he would be a far more terrible assailant
than either. Fortunately, however, he is slow compared with the horse,
although he can easily outrun a man, and there is another peculiarity
about him, which detracts somewhat from the danger of an encounter with
this savage beast, he is not a _tree climber_, and many a life has been
saved by this circumstance; for although he does not affect the forest,
there is usually some timber in the vicinity of his haunts, and in many
instances his intended victim has saved himself by taking refuge in a
tree.

Knowing well, by hearsay, all these facts, you can easily imag