AMERICAN BEARS 



31 



sheep, mostly above the timber line; anu in spue of the 

 fact that the taste of the yampa, the sarvis, and rasp- 

 berry and the choke cherry are unknown to him, his 

 flesh is the only bear meat I have ever tasted that is fit 

 to eat. This little fellow is of light chocolate color; his 

 hair is very long and silky, and his ordinary movements 

 are quick and active as those of the fox. When traveling 

 or hunting for his food, he has a way of sitting up like 

 a monkey every few yards, turning his pretty little head 

 from side to side with all the nimbleness of a squirrel. 

 I do not know whether he can climb a tree or not, nor 

 do 1 really feel certain that the others cannot; but, 

 singular as it may seem, it is a fact that they never do 

 except as cubs. You may pursue a young one, and if he 

 finds you gaining on him, he will scratch up the nearest 

 tree like a kitten. On the other hand, if a wounded 

 adult should tree you, he will sit at the root thereof till 

 hunger calls him away, or confine his efforts to tearing 

 at the trunk with tooth and toe-nail. 



"It has been disputed by many hunters and naturalists 

 that the bear hibernates or "holes up" as we call it here 

 in the Rockies; but I have found several of their winter 

 sleeping-places, and from my own observation I find 

 that Bruin makes preparation for his, or her, three or 

 four months' siesta, about in this fashion: A spot is 

 chosen, generally below the timber line, and always on 

 the north or east of a slope that is sheltered on the 

 upper side by thick-growing pines or the densest 'buck- 

 brush.' A bear never goes into the rock-piles or slides, 

 as they have a way of shifting their positions suddenly. 

 Instead of trusting to these treacherous cavities, he pro- 

 ceeds to dig his own cavern, going straight down for a 

 few feet, the entrance being barely big enough to allow 

 him to work freely. Then he strikes upward, slantingly, 

 and makes an apartment of sufficient size to enable him 

 to turn around or over. At the altitude he chooses, say 



9000 feet, the snow sets in at stated periods, early in 

 November, so that he knows just when to retire; and he 

 is generally covered with his fleecy quilt to a depth of 

 three or four feet before we people in the valley have 

 thought of putting up our stoves. The trees above pro- 

 tect him from being irretrievably covered by snow slides ; 

 and as the prevailing wind in those localities is from the 

 south and west, he is not likely to be overspread by 

 deep rifts. 



"Madam Bruin gives birth to her twins in this dark 

 abode; and they come forth, strong and lusty, with their 

 lean and hungry mother, about the first of April. Now 

 is the time when it behooves the hunter to look ahead and 

 think twice before attempting to catch one of these cute 

 little animals. The mother is never far away, and the 

 faintest whine from one of the babes brings her with 

 the speed of the race horse and the fury of a demon 

 to the rescue. In such a case, the hunter must have 

 what we of the West call "sand," and the rifle must- not 

 fail, or there will be a very dead and disfigured man in 

 a few seconds. 



"All of the varieties I have mentioned are easily trap- 

 ped. Unlike the coyote, who will sit on his tail and 

 starve to death in sight of the most delicious morsel if 

 there is any semblance of a snare about it, Bruin will 

 step in and investigate any sort of a pen, whether baited 

 or not. In consequence of this trait, and the fostering 

 of the idiotic bounty law, his capture has formed a 

 profitable industry in Colorado. However, the law has 

 been repealed since, and I sincerely hope that the meas- 

 ure will never be re-enacted." 



Some of the best accounts of Grizzly hunts that have 

 ever been published are those told by the late Colonel 

 Roosevelt of his own experiences, and they well ex- 

 emplify the coolness and daring of that most intrepid 

 hunter of big game. 



HE SLEEPS WITH THE BIRDS 



T) ETER PAN, you will remember, lived in the tree- 

 A tops. Well, so does Guy C. Caldwell, a naturalist 

 and tree surgeon, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, accord- 

 ing to the Boston Sunday Post. While this seems to open 

 a rich field of possible ways to beat the profiteering land- 

 lord, Mr. Caldwell's first "flier" into the tree-tops was 

 actuated, not by a desire to escape inflated rents, but by a 

 very real necessity to escape pursuing mosquitoes. He 

 says one hot evening he had slung his hammock under the 

 trees, as the coolest spot he could find, but that soon in 

 sheer self-defense he took to the "tall timbers" where he 

 slung his hammock, well protected by extra ropes and 

 a safety device of his own invention. (See contents 

 page.) This was rather a desperate measure, for an 

 ordinary man, but Mr. Caldwell is not an ordinary man. 

 He is a naturalist and a real lover of trees. Each one 



is to him a living thing, with character, moods and per- 

 sonality. He has turned his natural love for trees and his 

 wide knowledge of them to good account in the devotion 

 of his time to the very practical science of tree surgery. 

 During the war Mr. Caldwell served in the Navy and 

 his spare time was spent studying sea birds and marine 

 flora. His navy training was undoubtedly of service to 

 him in making easier his rapid ascensions to his aerial bed- 

 chamber, and in fitting him to rig up quickly, almost 

 anywhere, an outfit which will enable him to get into 

 the tree-tops quickly in order to observe to the best 

 advantage the intimate family life of his feathered 

 friends, to study their habits and become even more 

 expert than he now is in his marvelous imitation of their 

 calls and beautiful music. 



