430 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 27, 1883. 



A BAND OF BEARS'. 

 \ N old mountaineer will advise you not to fool with a 

 -^*- bear. And his advice is won li following. The man 

 who goes iuto the mountains for the first time is likely to lie 

 crazy to kill a bear. After he has gained experience, he is 

 quite willing to let the hears alone, if they will not interfere 

 with him. Of course this advice is intended to apply only 

 to the grizzly bear — the long-clawed species known in the 

 mountains by as many names ns he has colors. Cinnamon. 

 range bear, silver tip, gray, black, and yellow bear are some 

 of his names. The true black bear and his brown brothers— 

 usually called pine bears or brewn hears — are scarcely 

 ever dangerous. There may be cases where people have 

 been killed by these little fellows, but they are sxtremely ex- 

 ceptional. Ordinarily you could chase I hem with a stick, 

 and even if you caught them and gave them a sound drubbing 

 they would at most only give you a scratching in return, 

 which, while it might leave a scar or two, would probably 

 not permanently injure you. 



He of the long claws is a very different creature. Usually 

 he is timid and will run from you like a deer, but he is very 

 uncei tain of temper, and you can never tell just what he 

 will do. Sometimes when walking through thick hemlock 

 or juniper sprouts, 1 have suddenly come upon these animals 

 .when they were lying down, and have caught a glimpse of 

 them as they plunged into the undergrowth in rapid flight. 

 I have never happened to meet with one that was really 

 cross, but there are dozens of men who have. Old Jose 

 Telemanche — Mexican Joe as we used to call him— told me 

 many years ago something that occurred within a few yards 

 of where he was sitting. lie said: "We was camp on J ill 

 creek coming down through wide valley, me and two Injuns. 

 We make camp 'bout tree o'clock, an' after supper, one Injun, 

 he go into brush, gather plums. Plums very plenty all 

 'long creek, plum brush 'bout high as man's head. Bearhelike 

 plums too, an' he in brush pi cfcin' plums. Injun go 'long pick- 

 in' plums, put 'em in flour sack hung 'bout his neck. Bimeby 

 Injun come near where bear sittin' quiet, seein' what make 

 that cracklin' iu brush. Injun come 'long pickin', pickin', 

 and bear just reach out an' hit 'im. I sittin' by (ire smokin', 

 hear one yell. Then I jump for gun an' run in brush, fin' 

 Injun lyin' there, skull all smash in. Time we take 'iminto 

 camp, dead." 



Some years ago, while I was in Deer Lodge, a man was 

 desperately hurt under somewhat similar circumstances. He 

 was picking berries, when a bear rose from the brush beside 

 him and struck him. When I left the town he was in the 

 hospital, and was not expected to recover. On the other 

 hand, they arc sometimes the veriest cowards under circum- 

 stances which would seem to call for bravery. Many years 

 since I was attached to an exploring expedition which was 

 investigating a region about which nothing was then known, 

 hut which has since proved one of the richest mining dis- 

 tricts of the Rocky Mountains. We had with us some 

 Indian scouts, part of them Ariekarees, and part Sioux. 

 One day Cold Hand, an Ogallallah, and a young Ree came 

 upon an old she bear and two well-grown cubs on the open 

 prairie, at some distance from the mountains. The bears ran 

 as soon as they saw the Indians, and the latter pursued them 

 on their ponies. The chase was a long one, but at length 

 they overtook and killed first one of the cubs, and then the 

 other. By this time their horses had given out and could 

 go no further. Cold Hand was a cripple, his leg having 

 been rendered useless by a bullet, and could only walk with 

 a stick, so he remained behind to skin the cubs, and the Ree 

 chased the old bear on foot, until she took refuge iu a water 

 hole, where he killed her. Writers are rather given to 

 making the energy with wnich a she bear will defend her 

 cubs, the superlative of ferocity; but in this case the simile 

 would have failed. I once met a young man who told me 

 that all the stories about the ferocity of the grizzly were un- 

 true, and that they were no more dangerous than were deer. 

 A little questioning revealed the tact that his experience had 

 been confined to two individuals. Both of these were small 

 ones. One he had killed with his six-shooter, aud the other 

 he had chased for some distance over the open prarie with- 

 out being able to come up with it, I have seen other men — 

 old mountaineers, too — who bore on their bodies the marks 

 of deadly conflict with these fierce brutes. One of these 

 was covered with sears from the teeth and claws of the bear, 

 his left hand and arm so crippled as to be of little use to hi in, 

 and the left leg much shorter than his right, so that he had 

 a very perceptible limp. He wound up the story of his 

 tight by remarking that he wanted ' 'no more bears in his'n. " 

 People who kill hears usually do it for glory. It is true 

 that the skin, when in good order, makes a fine robe, but 

 this is scarcely inducement enough to lead a man to risk his 

 life. The flesh of an adult bear is, to my notion, uneatable; 

 in the sense that badger or coyote is so, though, of course, it, 

 all depends on how hungry you are. Young bear meat can 

 he eaten, but is never desirable. When a man takes to 

 hunting bear, therefore, it is usually because he is anxious to 

 be able to tell of his exploits with this dangerous game. And 

 recently a method has been devised by some prudent hunter, 

 who was anxious for fame, but unwilling to run any risks, 

 by which the dangers of this hunting have all been elimi- 

 nated. Like all good things, this device has the merits of 

 simplicity. The daring hunter starts out with a lot of heavy 

 bear traps, which he sets where the animals are abundant. 

 He mukes the round of his traps daily, and when he finds 

 one gone, follows the trail of the el«g or grapple until he 



comes within sight of the fugitive hear-, when he opens fire 

 on and kills him. The clog makes it impossible for the bear 

 to catch the hunter, aud he proudly carries home the skin 

 which he has raptured in so fair (?) a fight. This method of 

 bear hunting originated. I believe, with an Englishman, but 

 it has since been adopted by many of our own eountrymen. 

 who tire wise and prudent, and who, while hankering after 

 the glory of killing one, ten or twenty bears, are yet afraid 

 to meet them on their own ground and take their chances in 

 a square, stand-up fight. I do not =peak of the method to 

 condemn it. I have no sympathy with Ihe bears. They are 

 vermin, and the sooner they are destroyed the better. But 

 I confess that. 1 have as yet been unable to fathom the 

 motives of the hunters who have in this way added to their 

 tally of big game the name C 'rsitx tonilti/tx. Perhaps they 

 are merely butchers, men who would, if it were not for fear 

 of the penetentiary or Justice Ljuch's halter, kill the cattle 

 on the range simply for the pleasure of seeing blood flow. 

 What satisfaction can be had in slaying a hampered animal, 

 or skill can be displayed in shooting a bear whose foot is iu a 

 hundred-pound trap attached to a ten-foot clog. I am unable 

 to see. Can any one enlighten me? 



But all this rambling gossip about bears is wholly EoreigD 

 to the subject that I intended to write of. 



It was in June last vear that the Boss saw his band of 

 bears. The men are workers at the ranch, and when any one 

 goes hunting from there it is usually because the camp is 

 out of meat. On this day the supply had run low, aud so, 

 with John, the Boss left the house in the afternoon and 

 climbed the hills thinking that he would kill an elk. A fat 

 yearling heifer was what he wanted, or, if he could not get 

 that, a young bull would do. For about this time thehorns 

 of the. males stop growing, and they begin to take on fat, 

 and so arc much better eating than the old cows, each of 

 wTiich is suckling a couple of ever hungry calves. 



The trail up the mountain is steep, and every now and 

 then they stopped to take breath. Below them was spread out 

 the broad basin with its little streams and lakes sparkling and 

 flashing in the afternoon sun. Through the clear air could 

 be seen the far off peaks of the Park Creek Range and nearer 

 at hand the lower Freeze Out Hills, and then still nearerthe 

 bright green prairie dotted with feeding cattle. 



The tableland being reached, they separated, John taking- 

 one little park, aud the Boss the next one to the south, a 

 timbered ridge running between the two. Ou reaching a 

 likely looking spot, the Boss dismounted, and tied his horse, 

 intending to walk through the timber, for one can always 

 hunt more satisfactorily on foot than on horseback. He had 

 proceeded perhaps a quarter of a mile through the forest, 

 and was just going down a hill where the trees stood further 

 apart than usual, when he saw through the trees on the other 

 side of a little opening about twenty-five yards distant, a 

 black mass lying on the ground. He could only see it indis- 

 tinctly, for the trees obstiucted his sight and the light was 

 dim, but he concluded that it was a bear, and thought he 

 would kill it. Stepping round a little to get a better view, 

 he found a good opening through the trees, but just as he 

 was about to fire, the mass moved, separated, and resolved 

 itself into five bears. 



Without giving the Boss any great amount of time for 

 consideration, the largest of Ihe five gave a loud snarl and 

 rushed to vvard him. It was a vicious-looking brute, about 

 the size of a two-year old steer and quite dark in color. His 

 mouth was open, his white teeth gleaming, and the long red 

 tongue swaying as he ran, as if he had traveled far and was 

 hot. Two of the other bears, both large, walked after him 

 as he plunged along, rather as if they were curious to see 

 what was the matter, than from any desire to do harm to 

 any one. The Boss says he was scared, and, it may well be 

 true, but I venture to say that if any one had seen him stand- 

 ing in front of the onrusbing monster, that person would 

 not have been able to detect any signs of fear in the erect, 

 alert figure. Once he shouted loudly, hoping that he might 

 thus frighten the bear and check it for ti while, but it only 

 responded by another snarl. So he waited, and when the 

 animal was so close, to him that it seemed that another spring 

 would bring it within aria's length, the old rifle gave forth 

 its stream of fire and lead, and the owner turned and rushed 

 up the hill as fast as a man would naturally run with a thou- 

 sand pound grizzly at his heels. There was no sound of the 

 running beast immediately behiud him, and when he had 

 thrown another cartridge into his gun he threw a glance 

 backward and saw that he was not pursued. At the top of 

 the hill he paused and looked back. There on the ground 

 where he had stood when he shot he saw the big bear lying 

 on his back, and about bim were walking two others, growl- 

 ing and snarling, while from the point where they had all 

 been lying two more were approaching their companions. 

 The Boss was still within easy shooting distance, but he 

 made up his mind that there were too many in the band for 

 him to tackle, so he started off to hunt up reinforcements. 



He soon found John, and together they went back to the 

 scene of the encounter. Traveling slowly and cautiously 

 they reached the top of the hill, whence they could look 

 down upon the scene of the shooting. None of the bears 

 were within sight, and on going down the hill they saw that 

 the wounded one had sufficiently recovered to get up and 

 walk away. About the spot where it had fallen it looked as 

 if two or three buckets of blood had been spilt on the ground. 

 The Boss had the curiosity to measure the distance from the 

 spot where the hear had fallen to the prints made by his own 



feet, when he shot, aud found the distance just ten feet, 

 They then went ou to the place where the bear had been 

 lying wlieu first seen. Here at the foot of some large trees 

 they found holes, such as a dog will dig on a warm summer's 

 day, scraped in the dirt and pine needles. And it seemed as 

 if the brutes had been traveling, and on reaching this cool, 

 shady spot, had scraped out beds for themselves and lain 

 down to sleep. Ou being awakened they were as cross ns 

 human beings might be uud"r similar circumstances, and 

 the biggest, and most savage of them bad let his temper get 

 the better of him, and had made the attack. Returning 

 now to the spot where Hie bear had fallen they took up its 

 trail. There was no difficulty about following it, for the 

 animal was bleeding freely. For a quarter of a mile they 

 kept on after it, through the timber, and then it passed out 

 into a little park Hero Ihe tracks of the four others were 

 seen, and the five kept on together for some distance. Then- 

 were still heavy snow-drifts in many of the ravines and low 

 places, and this snow was packed so hard Blurt the feol of 

 the men as they walked over it made no prints upon it. The 

 tracks of the unwounded bears sunk into the snow an inch 

 or two, but the feet of the wounded one mads tracks eigh- 

 teen inches deep by measurement, thus affording some 

 indication of its size aud weight. 



The men followed the trail for about a mile and a half, 

 when it entered some low junipers where a man could not 

 see six Feet ahead of him. At this point they concluded that 

 they had gone far enough, and very wisely turned about 

 and returned to the ranch. 



The Boss told rac that he was never so scared in his life as 

 he was when he saw three bears; corning toward him, aud he 

 confidentially informed me that he didn't believe his face 

 recovered its natural color for three days alter the en- 

 counter. f 



W** $port8ti\nn (^ottri$t, 



JOHANNA. 



CO many years ago, that now. in looking back, it seems as 

 k_> though it miist have been in rav earlv boyhood, a 

 little steamer, trim, taunt and tidy, with close-reefed fore- 

 topsail settled on the cap, yards secured with well tautened 

 rolling tackles, lifts and preventer braces; masts by clove- 

 hitched hawsers, the ends well aft: hatches battened down, 

 boats doubly lashed and guns well secured, life lines fore 

 and aft, and a rag of a fore storm staysail, catching first on 

 one tack then on the other, thus checking tendency to yaw; 

 iu short, prepared in every way for self-defense, was rushiBg 

 for dear life down one, then slowly climbing another of the 

 tremendous high and long seas, with which the waters of the 

 Atlantic rush to meet those of the Pacific Ocean when im- 

 pelled by a howling northwester, off the Cape of Good Hope. 

 in winter. 



The waves raced with the little gunboat, and chased and 

 threatened her. 



Every pound of steam the boiler could generate, even- 

 turn of the screw that could be accomplished was called on 

 to relieve as much as possible the strain which, even with 

 their aid, was dangerous upon the spars, for if iu that race 

 for life a rope had parted, srjar carried away, or a stoppage 

 through any cause, even for a moment, of the engines bad 

 occurred, that little steamer would have been reported 

 •'Missing." 



For if any one of those monstrous foam-capped seas, 

 which towered line great snow-covered blue mountains high 

 above our tafrail, had come ou hoard, our foundering would 

 have quickly followed. They chased and caught us, but in 

 deference to the low and obsequious bows with which we 

 received them, and perhaps to the gallant efforts the little 

 ship was making to give them a good race, they gentiy 

 lifted our stern, and passing rapidly under instead of over us, 

 emerged boiling and fuming ahead, leaving us behind on 

 their slopes, to which in comparative sizes, we probably ap- 

 peared as might a cat on a cathedral roof. 



It was not though in my very early boyhood, for I stood on 

 the bridge of that gunboat her captain, and had stood there 

 with but slight intermissions, for five days and nights, en 

 veloped in pea jackets, sou'wester, oilskins and rubber hoots. 

 and living on hot coffee by the quart. Upon my pluck and 

 judgment, such as I had, depended the lives of all on board, 

 and our success in the attempt we were making to reach 

 China by "running down the roaring forties." 



1 had become about convinced that discretion was the 

 better part of valor, and quite willing to merge such of the 

 second named quality as I possessed into ihe first by an 

 abandonment of my plan at the first opportunity. 



We had left Simon's Bay on the 8th of June. We had 

 been detained ten days after we were ready for sea by a suc- 

 cession of southeast gales which kept the table-cloth well 

 spread. On this day a moderate northwest wind tempted us 

 out, but hardly were we well clear of the hind when it fresh- 

 ened into a heavy and increasing gale. There was no way 

 of getting back; we must face the music, and the first ex- 

 pL-rlnievfuf a • -(10-day gunboat" rounding the Cape was to 

 be a thorough test of the ability of these craft to "scud" and 

 •■lie to." for we had had a "great deal of weather." 



On the Uth the gale, without diminishing, hauled around 

 to southeast; on the 12th from east to northeast 'blowing 

 hard in terrific squalls, heavy rain, very cold." On the 13lh, 

 a Ut up for a few hours left us tumbling and rolling, then 

 from the northwest another new one began, which kept 

 things lively for a couple of days longer; then around to 

 southeast again, and with our best efforts with the 

 Agulhas curreut strong against us, we could make good no 

 better than north on one tack, about west, southwest on the 

 other, and that kind of work would hardlyget usover the thous- 

 ands of miles of easting between us and China; so lcnowing 

 that this southeaster was but sandwiched in, and would soon 

 give out, I gave up, kept her head on the northerly tack, 

 and to the joy of all hands— full sick of gales — made all pos- 

 sible haste to obtain a lee, which very soon we did, sheltered 

 by the highlands on the southeast sid'e of the Cape, and were 

 soon in smooth water, running for the Mozambique Channel, 

 the strait which separates the two great islands, Africa and 

 Madagascar. 



I say islands advisedly, for although at that date the Suez 



