Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1895 — KING OF BEASTS. [ARTICLE]

KING OF BEASTS.

SOME FACTS OF INTEREST ABOUT THE GRIZZLY. Hs Has Almost Disappear**! From His Haunts. The Big Follow Is Compared With Other Bears. The grizzly bear is becoming rare in California. Of late years it has been sometimes said that the animal/ had almost disappeared from the State. But this is by no means true. A wellknown fur dealer at San Francisco buys as many as a dozen skins each year, taken from grizzlies killed in California. He says, however, that these pelts are all from small bears; that there are probably no longer any large grizzlies in the State. From many counties in which bears were common in the early days they nave entirely disappeared. A few grizzlies may still be found in parts of the coast range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Siskiyou region. In the high Sierra there are many hundreds of square miles which will always remain a wilderness, being unfit for cultivation and human habitation. These wilds afford retreats from which the grizzly may never lie wholly exterminated, though ranchers and stockmen keep up an unceasing warfare on Itears of all sorts wherever the animals are found. The grizzly, in particular, has been so much hunted that it has lieeome exceedingly wary, and its haunts are now far from the most remote settlements. But this hunting has seldom been with the object of sport, the animal being too formidable for the sportsman. It is the general verdict of hunters that it is a mistake to run from a grizzly if the animal be close at hand. To do is to invite instant pursuit. And though the animal is exceedingly clumsy In appearance it is credited xwfth the ability to overtake even a horse on a sudden rush. Sometimes it will charge without any warning, advancing at a gallop, with an angry roar. When wounded and followed into dense chaparral it lias been known to lie silently in wait, ready to spring ujion its pursuer. To follow a grizzly into close cover is as dangerous an undertaking as can be attempted in quest of large game. The ferocity of the animal when roused is not less remarkable than its extraordinary tenacity of life. The fact is well attested that the grizzly will sometimes live for a number of hours and perform amazing feats of strength after its heart has been pierced by a bullet. Old hunters have laid down the rule that if a man be set upon by a grizzly at close quarters and there is no chance to use a rifle, it Is folly to attempt to use a knife or to struggle in any way. They say that the best course is to keep still and make no noise; to lie prostrate, face downward, and feign death, though the bear use teeth and claws. In one instance a hunter shot at and wounded a grizzly, which immediately rushed at him. He attempted to climb a tree.but the animal caught him by the foot and dragged him td the ground. He shrieked for help, struggled, and tried to ply his knife, but with one furious stroke of its mighty paw the bear tore out his vitals before his comrades could reach the spot. And yet it is related, in a number of Hutehing’s California Magazine of 185(1, that a colored man who was attacked by a grizzly near Mud Springs, in El Dorado county, succeeded in stabbing it to the .heart and escaped serious Injury. The adventure occurred in 184!) and the bein' is said to lutve weighed 1,100 pounds when dressed. It is further related that the meat was sold at $1.25 a pound, at which nite the negro would have realized $1,375 from his exploit. To persons acquainted with the extravagant prices of the early days of gold mining this story will not seem entirely fabulous.

The grizzly rarely, if ever, hugs an adversary. Its chief weapon is Its paw. The tremendous power of the brute is exhibited in crushing the ribs of a steer with a single blow. With one stroke of its paw It has also been known to stop instantly the rush of a maddened bull. Eights between bear and bull were common in the early history of California, and the grizzly was often victorious. This ursine monster is more than a match for the bison, and superior in strength as well as courage to any other member of the carnivora. The grizzly has sometimes been calbC lliO K-’i.cs'. of iun's but tinpolar bsar exceeds it in weight and length. Specimens of the polar bear weighing as much as 2,300 or 2,400 pounds have been taken. The grizzly prefers a brushy country, such as affords a good cover and an abundance of berries, edible roots, honey and insect food. It is a greedy feeder, and not at all particular. It will feast upon carrion, relishes ants and beetles, mice, gophers and other small creatures; will capture deer, hogs, sheep, cattle, horses and other domestic animals, when impelled by hunger, but is by preference a vegetarian. Berries are its favorite food, bur on the confines of civilization it manifests a most decided fondness for honey, as many a iteekeeper in southern California has learned to his cost. In carrying off a calf or young steer the bear will sometimes walk upon its hind feet, clasping the prey in its forearms. and in this way lift it over rocks and other obstructions. It has been known successfully to attack moose and elk. springing upon them from ambush and biting the spinal column through the neck. In California and Oregon it has displayed much fondness for fish, gorging itself upon salmon at the head waters of the streams, in which the spawning beds are situated. The bear wades upon the riffles or lies upon projecting rocks, where it can easily claw out the fish from the water in which they abound. In its search for insects it will often turn over large stones or fallen trunks of trees. Acorns and nuts of all sorts are among its food, and wild plums do not come amiss to its omnivorous appetite. The habits of the grizzly have been modified by its contact with civilization. Before its acquaintance with the white man and bls rifle the bear was accustomed to do most of its foraging by daylight, sleeping during the greater pjirt of the night and enjoying a siesta at noon; but now it prowls nt night if near the traces of man. and during the day lies hidden in some Impenetrable thicket. It has lairs, or

customary sleeping places, to which It resorts, but often lies in any convenient cover if on a berrying or other expedition far from its accustomed tramping ground. In cold regions the grizzly hibernates. like other bears, but to a less extent. The male. esi>eeially. is sometimes found roaming when snow is on the ground. When winter approachi* the female either makes a de 1 or selects for a lying-in chamber so in j cave. In the mountains of California where caves are seldom found, the den is usually exiaivated in the side of a steep slope forming one of the walls of a canon. The daws are efficient diggers, and tons of earth are usually removed before the work is» completist A tunnel three or four feet in diameter is run a distance of six feet or mon*, and then a chamber is hollowed out with much labor, whose dimensions will be fully six feet in diameter and five feet in height, if the nature of the ground will permit of these proportions. The inner chamber is thickly carpeted with leaves. The cubs of the grizzly species sometimes climb a fret', though clumsily, but the adult liear rarely or never climbs. A grown grizzly is too heavy to be a good climber, and the length and form of Its claws are unfavorable for the effort. The grizzly, however, lias been known to ascend a tree in pursuit of a hunter who had wounded it. The male grizzly is far from faiuerly. He has lieen known to kill and eat young cubs. Even the mother bear, whose devotion to her offspring is usually unquestionable, is said to devour a deformed or dead cub. One of the habits of the grizzly is that of burying animals which it has slain, after its hunger has been satistied. or for which it has no immediate need. It has been known to serve man in the same way. Early in the fifties a man named Drury, who had wounded a bear, took refuge on a sapling, which the grizzly proceeded to gnaw In two. The man was then savagely bitten, covered over with leaves and grass and left for dead. He recovered. but was a cripple ever afterward.