36 



"OA, Ranger!' 



Of course, Mr. Bear is just as likely to visit your camp if his nose 

 knows there is bacon about. The best way to be sure of your bacon, 

 when on a camping trip, is to hang it in a tree so small that the bear 

 cannot climb it. Large bears cannot climb small trees. They must choose 

 large ones, so that they can hug the trunk while they fasten their claws 

 into the bark. 



Even this scheme is not always a sure way of protecting your meat 

 from the bears. One Yosemite ranger tells of seeing a mother bear try 

 ing to get a ham from a small tree which she could not climb. After 

 trying vainly to shake it down, she went into a huddle with her cubs. 

 In a short time one of the cubs climbed the little tree, chewed the ham 

 loose and knocked it to the ground. The old bear seized it and, with the 

 cubs scampering after her, raced off through the woods, elated over 

 prospect of a feast. About the only sure way the rangers have found to 

 keep a ham out of reach of bears is to suspend the meat on a rope half 

 way between two trees and high enough so that all a bear can do is sit 



on his haunches and survey the pros 

 pective meal wistfully. After a while he 

 will amble off, growling to himself, "Sour 

 ham !" or words to that effect. 



The easiest way to scare a bear is with 

 noise. Beat a tin pan or rattle some pans 

 in a pail and the bear will lose no time in 

 his retreat. Oftentimes this is more dis 

 astrous than the robbery. One of the 

 rangers, stationed at a lonely cabin, was 

 pestered so much at night by bears whose 

 noses knew of his bacon that he could 

 hardly sleep. He would be wakened by 

 their clawing and scratching at the door. Tiptoeing to the door, he would 

 throw a chunk of wood at them. They would scamper off in great haste, 

 apparently frightened to death. In an hour, their noses would lead them 

 back, lured by the scent of bacon. Finally, the ranger hung up a pail, 

 rilled with tin cans, pans, and other metal objects, adjusting it with a 

 trigger which the bears themselves would set off with their clawing. 

 The device worked so well that when the pail, pans, and cans came clat 

 tering to the ground the bears took away the whole railing of the cabin 

 porch in their hurry. But they never came back. 



It is never a good plan to go out and give the bothersome bear a kick 

 on the tail. In the first place, a bear has no tail to speak of and in the 

 second place he may resent the ceremony. A ranger in Rainier Park tells 

 the story of a little bear that had been pestering him about the cabin, 

 knocking over the garbage pail every night. Finally the ranger lost 



