After some years of peaceful slumber, Mr. Kellys most excellent book of bear stories was roused to life by a recent criticism of Mr. Seton, the question being where Mr. Seton got his material for his bear stories, for a number of people suggested that it was taken from Mr. Kellys book. With the merits of this controversy, ourselves have naught to do, but the matter in Mr. Kellys book is excellent. -Forest and Stream, Volume 67, July 7, 1906
These bear stories were accumulated and written during a quarter of a century of intermittent wanderings and hunting on the Pacific Slope, and are here printed in a book because they may serve to entertain and amuse. Most of them are true, and the others--well, every hunter and fisherman has a certain weakness, which is harmless, readily detected and sympathetically tolerated by others of the guild. The reader will not be deceived by the whimsical romances of the bear-slayers, and he may rest assured that these tales illustrate many traits of the bear and at least one trait of the men who hunt him.
I. The California Grizzly
II. The Story of Monarch
III. Chronicles of Clubfoot
IV. Mountain Charley
V. In the Valley of the Shadow
VI. When Grizzlies Ran in Droves
VII. The Adventures of Pike
VIII. In the Big Snow
IX. Boston's Big Bear Fight
X. Yosemite
XI. The Right of Way
XII. Well Heeled
XIII. Smoked Out
XIV. A Cry in the Night
XV. A Campfire Symposium
XVI. Brainy Bears of the Pecos
XVII. When Monarch was Free
XVIII. How Old Pinto Died
XIX. Three in a Boat
XX. A Providential Prospect Hole
XXI. Killed with a Bowie
XXII. A Denful of Grizzlies
