lmost 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 grizzly 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 grizzly 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 has 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 such
conditions. This is not necessary, however, and a good hunter, rather than
lose his quarry, will, under ordinary circumstances, follow and attack it,
no matter how tangled the fastness in which it has sought refuge; but he
must act warily and with the utmost caution and resolution, if he wishes
to escape a terrible and probably fatal mauling. An experienced hunter is
rarely rash, and never heedless; he will not, when alone, follow a wounded
bear into a thicket, if by the exercise of patience, skill, and knowledge
of the game's habits he can avoid the necessity; but it is idle to talk of
the feat as something which ought in no case to be attempted.

While danger ought never to be needlessly incurred, it is yet true that
the keenest zest in sport comes from its presence, and from the consequent
exercise of the qualities necessary to overcome it. The most thrilli