This is the only instance in which I have been regularly charged by a
grisly. On the whole, the danger of hunting these great bears has been
much exaggerated. At the beginning of the present century, when white
hunters first encountered the grisly, he was doubtless an exceedingly
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.
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