well-behaved Bear. Most persons believed that he came from some remote
mountains where were neither guns nor traps to make him sullen and
revengeful.




III.

Every one knows that a Bitter-root Grizzly is a bad Bear. The
Bitter-root Range is the roughest part of the mountains. The ground is
everywhere cut up with deep ravines and overgrown with dense and tangled
underbrush.

It is an impossible country for horses, and difficult for gunners, and
there is any amount of good Bear-pasture. So there are plenty of Bears
and plenty of trappers.

The Roachbacks, as the Bitter-root Grizzlies are called, are a cunning
and desperate race. An old Roachback knows more about traps than half
a dozen ordinary trappers; he knows more about plants and roots than a
whole college of botanists. He can tell to a certainty just when and
where to find each kind of grub and worm, and he knows by a whiff
whether the hunter on his trail a mile away is working with guns,
poison, dogs, traps, or all of them together. And he has one general
rule, which is an endless puzzle to the hunter: 'Whatever you decide
to do, do it quickly and follow it right up.' So when a trapper and a
Roachback meet, the Bear at once makes up his mind to run away as hard
as he can, or to rush at the man and fight to a finish.