258 THE BEAR FAMILY 



fornia, a common amusement on fete-days was a fight 

 between a grizzly bear and a bull. Old-time residents, 

 who witnessed the barbarous contests, say that the 

 grizzly came off victor. Some bears have despatched 

 five and six bulls in an afternoon. The maddened bear 

 would always rise upon his hind legs as the attacking, 

 bellowing bull, with head lowered, came prancing 

 toward the grizzly. The bear would await the attack, 

 then at a favorable moment, quick as a flash it would 

 deal the bull a staggering blow between the eyes. 

 This blow was sometimes so powerful that the bull 

 dropped dead with a crushed skull. Anyhow, the 

 blow from the bear's paw was always so heavy that 

 the bull was groggy for a few minutes and stumbled 

 on its forelegs. Meanwhile the grizzly would cling to 

 the bull, striking its razor-like claws deep into the bovine 

 flesh, while it bit and chewed the bull to death. At 

 some of these Spanish contests bears have broken 

 bulls' legs as if they were pine sticks. 



" ' The best illustration I ever knew of a grizzly's 

 powerful forearms and quickness of motion occurred 

 at a bear-and-buU fight in San Gabriel, Cal., in the early 

 forties,' said Senor Don Aguilar recently. ' In the 

 excitement of the mortal fight between the beasts, a 

 man accidentally fell over the railing to the floor of 

 the pen below. In a second the big hulking bear 

 dived from the bull straight at the man. striking one 

 paw at his head. The man was literally and instantly 

 scalped, and in a second more the grizzly had torn the 

 man into a horrible mass.' " 



However bad the bear of some years ago may have 

 been, I am satisfied from what I have seen of the 



