68 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



of wood and throwing tliem to one side or another as he ran. Finally 

 he jumped upon and ran along a fallen tree trunk and dropped into a 

 willow thicket at the base of the log. The bear, evidently losing the trail, 

 thereupon gave up the chase. Mr. Gabriel Souvelewsky relates that while 

 traveling along the south wall of the Tuolumne Canon late one afternoon 

 he came to a rock ledge occupied by two cinnamon bears. One of these 

 growled and made threatening advances so that Mr. Souvelewsky thought 

 it best not to continue farther in their direction. But he was not actually 

 pursued. The female mentioned above as being seen by the junior author 

 near Camp Curry in June, 1910, even though accompanied by her cubs, 

 was not unduly resentful of human intrusion. Several persons were taking 

 pictures of her while she had her cubs in sight, and later, when she had 

 hidden them, she came down and fed at a garbage heap while some forty 

 people looked on and snapped pictures at as short a distance as twent}' feet. 



Grizzly Bear. Ursus henshawi Merriam 



The history of the Grizzly Bear in the Yosemite region and indeed 

 throughout California is evidently a closed chapter in the book of nature. 

 In the "days of '49" numbers of the big fellows roamed over the hills 

 and valleys of California, and the Yosemite region doubtless had its full 

 quota of them. But the presence of the Grizzlies was incompatible with 

 the interests of the white man, and so they were killed off rapidly, until 

 now it seems likely that they are entirely gone. So sudden was their 

 extermination that no complete specimens were secured to be preserved 

 in our museums. And reliable accounts, published or in manuscript, of 

 the California grizzlies are meager at best. 



The word Yosemite^ is derived from a word in the tribal dialect of the 

 southern Miwok Indians who inhabited the Valley when it was discovered 

 by white men. This word, Uzumati, or Uzhumati, means grizzly bear, a 

 full-grown animal rather than a cub. The use of this name in association 

 with the Valley might be taken as an indication that Grizzly Bears orig- 

 inally inhabited the Yosemite Valley. But we have no precise evidence 

 to show that such was the case. Early visitors to the Yosemite often 

 mention "grizzlies" and "bears" in their narratives, but with an am- 

 biguity that leaves the reader uncertain as to whether a veritable Grizzly 

 was encountered anywhere in the Valley proper. . 



The names Bear Valley, Bear Creek, Big Grizzly Flat, and Little Grizzly 

 attest the former wide occurrence of Grizzly Bears in the foothill district 

 of the region. 



3 For the circumstances surrounding the choice of the name consult L. H. Bunnell, 

 Discovery of the Yosemite; for discussion of the meaning of the word see paper by 

 A. L. Kroeber, California Place Names of Indian Origin (Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch. 

 Ethn., vol. 12 [1916], p. 68). 



