For many years these bears have been so persistently hunted by the natives, who are constantly patrolling the shores in their skin canoes, that their knowledge of man and their senses of smell and hearing are developed to an extreme degree.  They have, however, like most bears, but indifferent sight.  They range in color from a light tawny lion to a very dark brown; in fact, I have seen some bears that were almost black.  Many people have asked me about their size, and how they compare in this respect with other bears.  The Kadiak bear is naturally extremely large.  His head is very massive, and he stands high at the shoulders.  This latter characteristic is emphasized by a thick tuft of hair which stands erect on the dorsal ridge just over the shoulders.  The largest bear of this kind which I shot measured 8 feet in a straight line from his nose to the end of the vertebrae, and stood 51-1/2 inches in a straight line at the shoulders, not including between 6 and 7 inches of hair.

Most people have an exaggerated idea of the number of bears on the Kadiak Islands.  Personally I believe that they are too few ever to make shooting them popular.  In fact, it was only by the hardest kind of careful and constant work that I was finally successful in bagging my first bear on Kadiak.  When the salmon come it is not so difficult to get a shot, but this lying in wait at night by a salmon stream cannot compare with seeking out the game on the hills in the spring, and stalking it in a sportsmanlike manner.

It was more than a week after our landing at Kadiak before the weather permitted me to go to Afognak, where my old hunters lived, to make our final preparations.  One winter storm after another came in quick succession, but we did not mind the delay, for we had come early and did not expect the bears would leave their dens before April.

I decided to take with me on my hunt the same two natives whom I had had the year before.  My head man’s name was Fedor Deerinhoff.  He was about forty years of age, and had been a noted sea otter and bear hunter.  In size he was rather larger than the average of his race, and absolutely fearless.  Many stories are told of his hand-to-hand encounters with these big bears.  I think the best one is of a time when he crawled into a den on his hands and knees, and in the dark, and at close quarters, shot three.  He was unable to see, and the bears’ heavy breathing was his only guide in taking aim.

Nikolai Pycoon, my other native, was younger and shorter in stature, and had also a great reputation as a hunter, which later I found was fully justified, and furthermore was considered the best baidarka man of Afognak.  He was a nice little fellow, always good natured, always keen, always willing, and the only native whom I have ever met with a true sense of gratitude.