58 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



assume that he can whip his weight in wild cats. While it is 

 a dangerous opponent at close quarters, owing to its weight, 

 size, and strength, the sharpness of its teeth and claws, and 

 its hugging propensity, yet its power may be overcome by 

 seizing it by the throat, near the root of the tongue, and 

 pressing the fingers heavily on it, and this soon produces 

 spasms of the glottis, which suffocate it in a short time. 



Bears are interesting and playful creatures about a house 

 until they are a year old, but after that time they are trouble- 

 some, and liable to get into mischief on every occasion. They 

 are so numerous in certain sections beyond the Rocky Moun- 

 tains that several of them form accessories of towns and cities, 

 and even of farmhouses, and in all cases they seem to be pam- 

 pered pets. I have seen as many as eight tied around a house 

 in Oregon, and five near another house in Washington Terri- 

 tory; and I knew a half-hunter and half-stockraiser in 

 Wyoming to have seventeen cubs in his stable at a time. He 

 kept them for sale, however, and those that he did not dispose 

 of were killed for their hides and flesh. He informed me that 

 he could catch as many cubs as he wanted in February and 

 March, by killing the dam, but that they were not worth the 

 time and trouble devoted to their capture. 



To kill a bear in the Atlantic States is considered quite a 

 feat; to kill twenty of them is not considered much by any 

 experienced Nimrod west of the Rocky Mountains. The reason 

 for this discrepancy in the feelings of the chase is, that while 

 the animal is very scarce in one division of the country, it is 

 very abundant in the other. Even in portions of the Southern 

 Stales, where it is still common, a bear hunt is a gala event, 

 and armed and mounted men and numerous dogs take part in 

 it, much the same as they would in a wolf drive in Russia or a 

 boar hunt in the Ardennes. I have hunted it in the Far West, 

 not because I wished to do so specially, but because it came in 

 my way when in search of other game, and 1 thought it better 

 than nothing. I have, on a few occasions, formed one of a 

 party organized specially for a chase after it; but I soon learned 

 that we could not find it sometimes when we most wanted it, 

 and that when found, it oll'ered little or no sport unless it was 



