64 Hunting the Grisly 



and killing the animal outright by the 

 shock. 



Horses no less than horned cattle at times 

 fall victims to this great bear, which usually 

 springs on them from the edge of a clearing 

 as they graze in some mountain pasture, or 

 among the foothills ; and there is no other ani 

 mal of which horses seem so much afraid. 

 Generally the bear, whether successful or un 

 successful in its raids on cattle and horses, 

 comes off unscathed from the struggle; but 

 this is not always the case, and it has much 

 respect for the hoofs or horns of its should-be 

 prey. Some horses do not seem to know how 

 to fight it at all ; but others are both quick and 

 vicious, and prove themselves very formidable 

 foes, lashing out behind, and striking with 

 their fore-hoofs. I have elsewhere given an 

 instance of a stallion which beat off a bear, 

 breaking its jaw. 



Quite near my ranch, once, a cowboy in 

 my employ found unmistakable evidence of 

 the discomfiture of a bear by a long-horned 

 range cow. It was in the early spring, and the 

 cow with her new-born calf was in a brush- 

 bordered valley. The footprints in the damp 

 soil were very plain, and showed all that had 

 happened. The bear had evidently come out 



