There are four distinct species of Grizzlies. And are more or less sprinkled throughout The rocky mountains in Mexico, U.S. and British Columbia. The Silver tipp. Bald face, The great Grizzly and the Kodiak Grizzly. The silver tipp scarcely ever has more than one cub and lives on roots and grass, when he cannot get meat. The great Grizzley loves colts and sheep, they cannot get a deer for the reason that they smell so fowl that a deer can smell them too far. The bald face is much like a great Grizzley only smaller and more alert. The Kodiak Grizzly, lives further north than any of the rest and is at least as big and twice as agressive as the other kind. They inhabit the wilderness from B.C. To Gnome Alaska. All of these bear are bold and genuine bluffers. they never snoop. they depend upon their size and name to carry them through. seldom do hunters kill them untill they have emptied tha last load.
I then went back to my horse--or; to where I left him; but he had given me the French leave--I had tied him;--as Cow-punchers say--"To the ground." And he had taken advantage of his liberty, and ran into camp ten miles away. I had on high heel boots; and they walk bad--considerable worse than they look,--so the road was a long one.
After while we broke camp and went up the medicine bow river; to the North Platte; and here set our traps. Now we have what we call the low-lines--and the high-lines. The lowlines we set on low wet soil for water animals. To give you an idea how much work is implied in setting such a mass of traps as we carried I will describe a bout how far apart we had learned to set traps. Where rat are thick one hundred might be set in a single mile. Where mink are thick not over sixteen should be set per mile. Where coon are thick about twenty per mile. Where beaver are thick about forty per mile and where otter are thick about ten traps per mile. The Muskrat--is the most interesting of all animals that live in water. The beaver Black, Blue, Brown, White, Gray not excepted.
The Rat lives on flags and water mussels. He never kills small ducks as has been stated by some folks who never saw one. The Rat builds his house out of rushes from five to six feet broad sometimes much broader, and about three feet high. About a dozen rats live in a house. Their bed is from two six inches from the surface. They have feeding rooms in the house, and feed on the walls of the rooms, eventually eating the house up which is often the case in cold climates. They also have a bank hole in addition to the house hole. When frightened they go to the bank hole. They also have air holes covered very cunningly two or three inches deep on the way to the bank and water. These air-holes are overlaid loosely with flags and other light materials.