Page:Hunting and trapping stories; a book for boys (IA huntingtrappings00pric).pdf/226

 The fact that this bear was found carrying, not dragging, a large deer, indicates its enormous strength. The skinning took some time, and parts of the meat were cut off and roasted and found to be good eating. The bear is capable of considerable speed and even when badly wounded it has been seen to move over the ground at a great pace. It does not gallop but appears to shuffle along in clumsy fashion.

On the way back to the ranch one of the hunters killed a fine buck but they had no means of carrying the body with them. The young hunter did not know what to do, for he knew that the coyotes would find the prize in no time. The guide said he would "fix it." He took the skin of the grizzly and laid it over the deer and then they went on. Later in the day the guide and the hunter returned with a packhorse and found the body untouched. There is a smell about the grizzly that other creatures greatly dread, and the skin of a grizzly, spread in this fashion, over any game is a sure protection. The shapelessness of it scares the other creatures too, for all the forest-folk fear anything that they cannot understand. Bears are not always savage as the following incident shows. One day a lady in Califorina while out walking on a lonely path met a Cinnamon Bear. The two looked at each other for a moment then they both turned tail and walked in opposite directions with as much haste as dignity would permit. This incident is somewhat remarkable as cinnamon bears have rather a bad reputation along the Pacific slope for showing ugly temper.

While some railroad section hands were camped in a pine forest in Oregon a funny bear incident happened. One of the camp children, a tiny tot in short dresses, went down to play by a mountain brook that ran close to the railroad. Suddenly the child looked up and saw a bear cub drinking in the stream only a few yards away. Both babies caught sight of each other at the same moment and both began to yell. The mother rushed down and caught up her child and carried it off. Almost at the same moment a huge bear shuffled out of the woods, came up to the cub and carried it away to safety too. You see both mothers were anxious about their young ones.

Bears are excellent climbers and often attack the wild bee's nests even when they are built high up in the hollows of trees. The bees buzz around angrily and sting the robber. But either its skin, or its fur, is so thick that the bees make no impression; at any rate the bears do not seem to care an atom. The bear has a fair sized brain and soon becomes tame and even affectionate. Members of the family are found in almost every part of the world, from the Arctic to the Equator.