savage beast, prone to attack without provocation, and a redoubtable foe
to persons armed with the clumsy, small-bore muzzle-loading rifles of
the day. But at present bitter experience has taught him caution. He has
been hunted for the bounty, and hunted as a dangerous enemy to stock,
until, save in the very wildest districts, he has learned to be more
wary than a deer and to avoid man's presence almost as carefully as the
most timid kind of game. Except in rare cases he will not attack of
his own accord, and, as a rule, even when wounded his object is escape
rather than battle.

Still, when fairly brought to bay, or when moved by a sudden fit of
ungovernable anger, the grisly is beyond peradventure a very dangerous
antagonist. The first shot, if taken at a bear a good distance off and
previously unwounded and unharried, is not usually fraught with much
danger, the startled animal being at the outset bent merely on flight.
It is always hazardous, however, to track a wounded and worried grisly
into thick cover, and the man who habitually follows and kills this
chief of American game in dense timber, never abandoning the bloody
trail whithersoever it leads, must show no small degree of skill and
hardihood, and must not too closely count the risk to life or limb.
Bears differ widely in temper, and occasionally one may be found who
will not show fight, no matter how much he is bullied; but, as a rule,
a hunter must be cautious in meddling with a wounded animal which has
retreated into a dense thicket, and had been once or twice roused; and
such a beast, when it does turn, will usually charge again and again,
and fight to the last with unconquerable ferocity. The short distance
at which the bear can be seen through the underbrush, the fury of his
charge, and his tenacity of life make it necessary for the hunter on
such occasions to have steady nerves and a fairly quick and accurate
aim. It is always well to have two men in following a wounded bear under