OLD EPHRAIM, THE GRISLY BEAR. 57 



his victim by seizing it near the loins and 

 striking a disabling blow over the small of the 

 back ; in at least one instance he had jumped 

 on the animal's head, grasping it with his fore- 

 paws, while with his fangs he tore open the 

 throat or craunched the neck bone. Some of 

 his victims were slain far from the river, in 

 winding, brushy coulies of the Bad Lands, 

 where the broken nature of the ground ren- 

 dered stalking easy. Several of the ranch- 

 men, angered at their losses, hunted their foe 

 eagerly, but always with ill success ; until one 

 of them put poison in a carcass, and thus at 

 last, in ignoble fashion, slew the cattle-killer. 



Mr. Clarence King informs me that he was 

 once eye-witness to a bear's killing a steer, in 

 California. The steer was in a small pasture, 

 and the bear climbed over, partly breaking 

 down, the rails which barred the gateway. 

 The steer started to run, but the grisly over- 

 took it in four or five bounds, and struck it a 

 tremendous blow on the flank with one paw, 

 knocking several ribs clear away from the 

 spine, and killing the animal outright by the 

 shock. 



Horses no less than horned cattle at times 

 fall victims to this great bear, which usually 

 spring on them from the edge of a clearing as 

 they graze in some mountain pasture, or 

 among the foot-hills ; and there is no other 

 animal 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 



