5 2 SPOR TING A D VENTURES 



capture one, but, at my request, it was decided not to shoot 

 them there, but to drive them out and capture them alive if 

 possible. When the proposition was agreed to, four of us 

 went after one, and the rest after the other. Driving 1 our cub 

 into open ground, the lariats were soon whirling 1 about its 

 head, and in less than five minutes we had it bound legs and 

 head, so that it could not move either. The other party being 

 equally successful, we placed all our trophies in three waggons 

 and returned to our rendezvous, at the house of Gonzales, as 

 he was too much injured to be able to indulge in any hunts 

 just then, and all wished to show him how much he was 

 respected. I left the neighbourhood a few days afterwards, 

 but I learned from a correspondent that over twenty grizzlies 

 were killed in that section during the season, though the 

 greater number were poisoned. 



A final word might be said about the position of the grizzly 

 in the animal world. Naturalists have culled the lion the 

 " king of beasts," but they evidently knew little of the 

 grizzly at the time they made this decision. If strength and 

 courage are considered as recommendations to royalty in the 

 quadrupedal world, then I think the grizzly ranks above the 

 lion. I have not seen the former perform the feats said to be 

 accomplished by the latter, of trotting away with a heifer in 

 its mouth, as it does not generally carry its prey in that 

 manner, as the felidce. do, but I have known it to kill an elk 

 weighing five or six hundred pounds, and in devouring it to 

 turn it over with the greatest ease. It, so far as my experience 

 and information goes, drags its prey along the ground if 

 heavy, but if light it has been known to carry it between its 

 forelegs. In magnanimity of character, if carnivorous animals 

 can possess such a trait, it is equal to the so-called " king of 

 beasts/' for it has been known to wound a buffalo severely, 

 then let the poor creature escape. That it has killed t\vo and 

 three buffaloes at a time with strokes of its huge paws is a 

 well authenticated fact; and it has been, to reiterate, kno\vn 

 to drag a heavy bull, that must have weighed from twelve to 

 eighteen hundred pounds, a long distance. 1 doubt if a lion 

 can do this, and I am rather inclined to think that in a 



