SHYNESS OF GRIZZLIES 103

nothing of getting in a successful shot, is another matter
altogether, though if you were out in the middle of
summer and had no rifle it is quite on the cards that
they would crop up wherever you went, and perhaps
raid your camp if you left it for any length of time. It
is, however, unusual for a grizzly to venture near a camp,
though a black bear has no compunction in doing so if
he is given half a chance. Once in a while grizzlies do
become bold, and I remember two that used to visit the
outskirts of the town of Golden. Their visits became
too frequent and of such lengthy duration that they had
to be shot. But the general rule is that a grizzly is the
easiest of game to frighten away; their olfactory organs
are extremely sensitive; on their noses they place their
chief reliance for safety, and the faintest taint of a man
is liable to start one off on a twenty-mile hike. While
their eyesight is nothing to boast of, their hearing is the
equal of that of a moose or mule-deer, and one or two
rifle shots, even heard at a distance, is apt to have dis-
astrous results to your sport.

The only time when you can say grizzlies are easy to
find is when the salmon first begin to run up the smaller
streams. Then all bears for miles around, both black
and grizzly, congregate to do their fishing, and, if you
can get to some stream that has not been much disturbed,
you can be reasonably sure of getting shots. Unfortun-
ately, at the time when the run of salmon first commences
the skins are not prime—generally not worth skinning—
and later on, when the fur has improved, the salmon have
scattered up so many branches that the bear have scattered
too, and while it is still possible to find them it is by no
means such a certainty as it was earlier in the season.

The majority of grizzlies have a love for meat. The
carcass of goat, caribou, or any other game will bring
them for miles, so if you revisit the carcass of any kill
you have made you are quite likely to find a grizzly there
enjoying a full meal. In the Cassiar district many of
these animals are killed in this way.

The spring is, however, the proper season to hunt bears.