With the silence and immobility of a great reddish-tinted, rock, Thor stood for many minutes looking out over his domain.

He could not see far, for, like all grizzlies, his eyes were small and far apart, and his vision was bad.

At a distance of a third or a half a mile he could make out a goat or a mountain sheep, but beyond that his world was a vast sun-filled or night-darkened mystery through which he ranged mostly by the guidance of sound and smell.
It was the sense of smell that held him still and motionless now.

Up out of the valley a scent had come to his nostrils that he had never smelled before.

It was something that did not belong there, and it stirred him strangely.