STORY OF INCIDENT WITH GRIZZLY 95

The man up the tree was evidently full of pluck, for he came down and did his best to help his partner. Of course, being unarmed, he got hurt too, and eventually the bear left them for dead. When they recovered con- sciousness one of them looked at the other and remarked : ** What a hell of a mess your head is in!” To which his partner retorted: ‘*’Tain’t no worse than yours.”

How those two cripples ever got to’Atlin is a mystery, but they did it. Both were terribly injured, and one of them nearly died from the effects of his wounds. With what ferocity that bear bit them you can understand when I tell you that a tooth was left firmly embedded in the skull of one of them.

So you see that there are occasionally savage bears that will attack you, and probably some of the charges that sportsmen report are also facts. Nevertheless it is my opinion that the majority of charges are not charges at all, but simply that the bear runs that way by accident. Several times it has been my experience to have bears come right at me as hard as they could lay legs to the ground, but it has always seemed to me that it was because they happened to be thinking it was the way they ought to go. A couple of years ago, when I was acting as a guide, a grizzly made what appeared to be a most deliberate charge when unwounded. I do not, nor did I at the time, think it was an attack, though to most men it would have appeared to be. Never in all my experiences have I ever seen a bear give such an exhibition of speed and agility, and I shall never cease to regret that I did not have a moving-picture camera with me. It is a story worth telling, so I will give it to you.

The scene where this incident took place was in the extreme north of what*is known as the Cassiar country. I had taken out a man, whom I will call the Major, for an all-round shoot, and after four or five days’ travelling reached a place where, though it was early in the day, we should have to camp that night. The reason for this was that the best sheep range, for which we were heading, lay on the other side of a mountain over 6,000 feet