23. Half rising up, the huge beast fell over on his side in the death throes, the ball having gone into his brain, striking as fairly between the eyes as if the distance had been measured by a carpenter's rule.
He reared up on his haunches.
24. The whole thing was over in twenty seconds from the time I caught sight of the game; indeed, it was over so quickly that the grizzly did not have time to show fight at all, or come a step toward us. It was the first I had ever seen, and I felt not a little proud as I stood over the great brindled bulk which lay stretched out at length in the cool shade of the evergreens.
25. He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have seen since, whether alive or brought in dead by the hunters. As near as we could estimate—for of course we had nothing with which to weigh more than very small portions—he must have weighed about twelve hundred pounds; and though this is not so large as some of his kind are said to grow in California, it is yet a very unusual size for a bear. He was a good deal heavier than any of our horses; and it was with the greatest difficulty that we were able to skin him.
26. He must have been very old, his teeth and claws being all worn down and blunted; but nevertheless he had been living in plenty, for he was as fat as a prize hog, the layers of his back being a finger's length in thickness.
27. He was still in the summer coat, his hair being short, and in color a curious brindled brown, somewhat like that of certain bulldogs; while all the bears we shot afterward had the long, thick winter fur, cinnamon or yellowish brown.
28. By the way, the name of this bear has reference to its character and not to its color, and should, I suppose, be properly spelled "grisly"—in the sense of horrible, exactly as we speak of a "grisly specter"—and not "grizzly;" but perhaps the latter way of spelling it is too well established to be now changed.