The Challenge (showing a young Alaskan Grizzly of the Big Brown Bear Type) 24 _Photograph by Pedersen, Seward, Alaska_
Mexican Grizzlies: Group in the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago 64 _Reproduced by courtesy of the Museum_
Jenny and Johnny, in the First Year of their Lives 102 _Photograph by the Author_
Jenny and Johnny, at the Age of Fourteen 114 _Photograph taken in the Denver Zoo_
A Black Bear in the Sequoia National Park 212 _Photograph by Lindley Eddy, Giant Forest, Cal._
A Black Bear and Cubs 232 _Photograph by C. E. Huish, Eureka, Utah_
Grizzly Bear Group in Colorado Museum of Natural History, Denver 250 _Reproduced by courtesy of the Museum_
One autumn day, while I was watching a little cony stacking hay for the winter, a clinking and rattling of slide rock caught my attention. On the mountain-side opposite me, perhaps a hundred yards away, a grizzly bear was digging in an enormous rock-slide. He worked energetically. Several slabs of rock were hurled out of the hole and tossed down the mountain-side. Stones were thrown right and left. I could not make out what he was after, but it is likely that he was digging for a woodchuck.
After a short time only his shoulders showed above the scattered slide rock as he stood erect. Then he began piling the stones upon the edge of his deepening hole. The slope was steep and the stones had to be placed with care to prevent their tumbling back. After lifting into place one huge slab, he stood and looked at it for an instant and then slightly changed its position. On top of this stone he piled another large one, eyed it closely, shook it to see if it was solid, and finally shifted it a trifle. Had he not been wearing a grizzly-bear coat, it would have been easy to believe that a powerful, careful, thoughtful man was eagerly digging that hole.
The keenness of the grizzly's sagacity and the workings of his rare wit were impressed upon me in a photographing experience that I had. Two other young fellows and I thought we could get a near-by photograph of an old grizzly that ranged near us. We entered his territory at three widely separated places and moved in concert toward the centre. We hoped that either one of us would be able to slip up close to the grizzly or else he, in running away, would come close to one of us.