When the thicket they prefer is once located, the rest is easy. If quick results are desired, driving or, perhaps, calling will yield results. I once shot a bear which made its appearance immediately when, by way of experiment, I imitated the distress cry of a jack-rabbit. If the hunter has plenty of time to spend in the woods it is a good plan to watch for the quarry. During autumn proper, bears retreat to the more remote districts and the fastnesses of the mountains; here they are usually found during the daytime where they are accustomed to feed. In places where berries are plentiful, on ridges and in gulches where blue jays and squirrels are storing their winter supply of mast, here will be found the bears' favorite autumn haunts. In the mountains of the West there is a berry bush called kinni-kinic barberry or bearberry—I am not sure which is the correct term—that is thickly covered with fruit about the size of buffalo berries, and which is a favorite food for bears before they can obtain mast; or, if the latter fails, Bruin seems to regard the seeds of the piñon as a delicacy; but as it would apparently take up too much of his time to fill himself from those that fall to the ground, he resorts to easier methods to obtain them—he becomes a thief and incurs the enmity of squirrels and jays.
On ridges he robs the caches of the jays, and in cañons he depletes the stores of the squirrels, and, by no means approving of such actions, they heartily hate him and "cuss" at him whenever he approaches, and in this way often betray his presence to the hunter who has learned to interpret the language of the wood-folk. It is always well to approach with the utmost care places where there is a continual chatter of squirrels and cries of blue jays are heard; and if the "cussed" one proves to be some other marauder—well, it may be a bear next time. When still-hunting during the autumn the attention paid to these small denizens of the woods is by no means wasted, and yields better results than covering a great territory, or watching for hours on trails or near baits, which latter are seldom visited by bears during rifle light.
BEAR LOG
Until I undertook the systematic study of the bear's habits I was under the impression, from what I had read, that a bear track was easily recognized, and actually passed many, regarding them as cougar tracks. I have since noticed that many hunters, born and reared in a bear country, make the same mistake. Of course in mud or snow a bear track is easily identified, but in the vastness of mountains and forests snow and mud are not always present; in fact, they are of little service. There, the heel of the foot is practically never seen in the track during snowless times, and as the shape of the fore part of the foot conforms with that of the mountain lion, a mistake is easily possible if the imprints of the five toes of the bear are not all visible. The trailer in these districts and under these circumstances is generally lucky if he can discern here and there the part of a track of a bear's foot. A couple of years ago a party of old deer hunters told me of the great number of lion tracks they had seen as they came into camp, and at my query if they saw any bear tracks, they answered, "No"; yet I had camped there over two months, knew absolutely that no lion was in those parts, that bears were abundant, and that the hunters could have seen only their tracks. So much for the information of those who have an idea that an animal, weighing from three hundred to over a thousand pounds, must necessarily make a big trail which can be readily followed.
BEAR LOG
The tracker, if he will but stop and investigate closely, need not make a mistake, even if only the imprint of a single toe is plainly visible, as the long nails of the bear almost always leave some mark in front of the track. The distance which the nails stand away from the toe imprints is the only means of distinguishing the grizzly's track from that of the black bear, except that size dispels any doubt. The nails of the grizzly stand out almost straight, while those of the black bear are more curvate, and their imprints must consequently be found closer to the track of the foot.
The likeness of the bear track to that of the human foot has been referred to by many writers. In reality no likeness exists, and the inexperienced trailer in the woods has the already disadvantageous conditions under which he is working multiplied so long as he is not disillusioned.
If a bear who knows nothing of the hunter is shot at and suddenly whirls around, i. e., jumps when the trigger is pulled, he is hit, no matter whether there is another sign or not, and the color of the blood will indicate to the hunter where he is struck. A shot through the lungs with the modern high-power rifle will sometimes not prove fatal within ten or twelve hours.