Some Bears will
not approach one till it is weather-beaten and gray. But they removed
all chips and covered the newly cut wood with mud, then rubbed the
inside with stale meat, and hung a lump of ancient venison on the
trigger of each trap.
They did not go around for three days, knowing that the human smell
must first be dissipated, and then they found but one trap sprung--the
door down. Bonamy became greatly excited, for they had crossed the
Grizzly's track close by. But Kellyan had been studying the dust and
suddenly laughed aloud.
"Look at that,"--he pointed to a thing like a Bear-track, but scarcely
two inches long. "There's the B'ar we'll find in that; that's a
bushy-tailed B'ar," and Bonamy joined in the laugh when he realized
that the victim in the big trap was nothing but a little skunk.
"Next time we'll set the bait higher and not set the trigger so fine."
They rubbed their boots with stale meat when they went the rounds,
then left the traps for a week.
There are Bears that eat little but roots and berries; there are Bears
that love best the great black salmon they can hook out of the pools
when the long "run" is on; and there are Bears that have a special
fondness for flesh. These are rare; they are apt to develop unusual
ferocity and meet an early death. Gringo was one of them, and he grew
like the brawny, meat-fed gladiators of old--bigger, stronger, and
fiercer than his fruit-and root-fed kin.
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