Jan. 17, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



493 



could hunt woodclmeks, or could chase 'coons out of a corn- 

 field, but a dog thai could follow a cold track, which mifiht 

 be six or eight hours old, and find the identical tree where 

 the 'coon bad laid up for the day, and that without missing; 

 wall a fins, whether mongrel, cur or terrier, was considered 

 an important acquisition by any live 'coon hunter. 



The 'coon, like the bear, gets very fat when food is plenty 

 anff frequently arc veiv poor when food is scarce, hence the 

 difference in weigh I, of individuals, which varies from six- 

 teen to thirty-five pounds. The 'coon may lie classed among 

 the Omnivorous animals. Almost an endless variety of food 

 is included in his diet, such as berries, wild fruits, chest- 

 nuts, acorns, beechmaet, green corn, frogs, lizards, crabs, 

 snail-:', small fish, gru'.s. wasps, hoes, larva?. eggs and young 

 birds; Tlie 'coon lays up, or hibernates, during the winter, 

 or just so long as "the deep snow prevents his foraging. 

 Cold weather (loes not drive him in at all. It is from the 

 luck of lood licit In climbs high up into the hollow trunk 

 of some old tree, where he rolls himself up like n round 

 ball, wilh his nose curled down under bis feel, in winch 

 posture he may he said lo lie squarely on the lop of his own 

 head. It is not knowu that he sleeps the whole time, but 

 this supposition is that lie does. Their he lies, however, if 

 not disturbed, perhaps for six or eight weeks, or until the 

 snow thaws and settles enough for easy traveling, when he 

 is sure to awake and start out in search" of food, frequently 

 traveling long distances, following up and down small spring 

 brooks fishing out crabs, snails or any other small creatures 

 that may he found in such places. -Sometimes a little of 

 the last year's mast has laid over, which they find on the 

 wet. bare spots where the snow has melted off. But the 

 supply at such times is meagre, and however fat they may 

 he at starting out they soou become lean, and are then ouly 

 hunted for the skins', which always yield prime fur during 

 the winter months. 



Raccoon skins have always been a quick sale at a moder- 

 ate price, aud there never was a shadow of reason why prime 

 skins have not been valued at a higher figure. The fur of 

 the northern 'coon, when caught in January or February, 

 equals that of the beaver in strength and Oneness, and when 

 haired and properly dressed, none bU( an expert can detect 

 any difference. I can remember as far back as when very 

 good heaver hats were manufactured from a mixture of 'coon 

 and muskrat furs. 



It is seldom that the 'coon breeds more than once in two 

 years. From four to six kits are produced at one birth, and 

 are littered in March or April. The young, if not forcibly 

 separated, remain with the mother through the first winter, 

 or until February or March. Six young 'coons have been 

 found in one tree wilh the dam, but there are not often more 

 than four, which in February are about two-thirds grown. 

 My opinion is that they do not arrive at their full growth 

 until near three years old. Antler. 



Gkajjdview, Teuu.. Jan. Ml. 



Lynx in New Hascpshibs. — Claremont, N. H.— On Dec. 



19, as Messrs. Straw aud Paul were fox hunting, they dis- 

 covered a strange track, and at once concluded to try and 

 capture, the animal. As Scott, the hound, was in pursuit of 

 a fox and nothing would tempt him to leave the trail until 

 the fox was tilted or run to earth, Mr. Straw came to the 

 village, found his young dog, and sent word to Mr. Charles 

 Dole, who is quite & successful fox hunter, and who owns 

 one of the writer's Old Watch puppies, a grand black and 

 tan. On reaching the ground * both young dogs worked 

 well, and soon his lordship was seen leaving a ledge, pur- 

 sued by the black and tan. Mr. Dole says the lynx, for such 

 it proved to be, did not seem to care for the dogs, and only 

 kept a few rods ahead of them, and when Mr. Dole "got 

 the drop" on him he was not more than forty rods ahead of 

 the dog. The lynx was brought to the village and put on 

 exhibition, being large game tot this locality, Below are 

 his weight and' measurements: Weight 21 pounds, height 

 181 inches, chest 15 inches, head 14 inches, forearm -8j 

 inches, from tip of nose to end of tail 88 inches, tail 5£ 

 inches. — Beau. 



Ruredinu of Squirrels, — Brookfield. N, Y., Jau. 13. — 

 Editor forest and Stream: 1 have read the remarks con- 

 cerning female squirrels being in a pregnaut condition late 

 in the fall and winter, and 1 would be glad to relate my ex- 

 perience in a few words. Last fall, during the. mouth of 

 October, 1 hunted gray Squirrels for a week. The number 

 of squirrels brought to bag amounted lo forty-nine, thirty- 

 six of which were females, either in a pregnant condition 

 or with the mammary glands full of milk. In years pre- 

 vious to this I have killed a great many squirrels, but never 

 have met with such u percentage of pregnant females, and 

 can't helpbut think that it indicates a mini and open winter. 

 Pine grosbeaks are abundant, very often seeing from ten to 

 fifteen in the top of a piue or hemlock. Two boys shot a 

 purple finch last week, an unusual occurrence so late in the 

 winter, — Greexwixg. 



RANGE of Caiu'odacus Frontalis.— Fort Lyon, Col., 

 Jan. 9, 1884.— Dr. Ooues, in his article on the crimson- 

 fronted or house linch ( Girfjodacu* frontalis), in your issile 

 of Jan. 1, gives its eastern range as the foothills of the Rocky 

 Mountains. I killed a male and female at this place aune 3. 

 Ib83. The male is in my collection. The female was too 

 badly shot to skin. She contained an egg with shell, which 

 1 did' nut measure, but took to be full size. These two are 

 all of this bird I have seen here. — T. 



A TAME Pa rtiudue.— Boston, Jan, i'Z. — EJUnr For>M 

 and Stream: A tame partridge is owned by Mr. John F. 

 Finn, BO Amesbury street, Lawrence, Mass., and is kept in 

 his saloon. Itis unite tame and will feed from the hand, 



and is very fond of acorns and lettuce. Any of your 

 readers win. live in the vicinity of Lawrence can see it by 

 calling on Mr. Finn. The bird has been in his possession 

 abpllt four months, and seems perfectly satisfied with its 

 quarters.— T. B, M. 



A Black Fox.— Maloue, Franklin County, N. Y., Jan. S, 

 1884.— Since writing to you last I have had the good fortune 

 lo see a black fox. a rarity wilh us. lie saw me as soon as 

 I did him, consequently I did not get a shot. My dog did 

 not give him a chance to play, and I did nut see him again. 

 Tne dog was gone two days. A party was out yesterday 

 and started four foxes in fifteen minutes, ami killed one. 

 Snow is about a fool aud a hall eleep. — Fox. 



for «r<* §m> 



IN THE HAUNTS OF THE GRIZZLY. 



stii.l-hi ntixg .\xr> Tjurnsf! rx Wyoming. 



WHEN Lewis and Clark made their celebrated journey 

 of exploration across the North American continent 

 just eighty years ago, they encountered many large and 

 ferocious bears, which they variously dubbed the white', 

 brown and grizzly hear. Finally- they- came to the conclu- 

 sion that they all belonged to the same species, bill they still 

 continued to speak of them fey their various names. The 

 student of natural history will find in their hook many euri 

 ous aud valuable facts relating to these animals, truthfully 

 narrated and without any varnish. 



At that time unzzlies" were abundant in the prairie coun- 

 tries along the Upper Missouri, and frequent]) made their 

 lairs among the low willows of the river bottoms. As the 

 country has become sell led, the gi-iz7.lv has either disappeared 

 before the march of civilization, or. in common wilh other 

 animals, has retired lo the heavy forests on the slopes of the 

 remotest mountains. It is now a very rare t hiug to see one 

 out in "the open," and when so discovered he generally 

 makes for cover at top speed. 



The bear hunter need not picture himself mounted On his 

 gallant pony, and from a safe distance pouring a stream of 

 bullets into a defiant grizzly, for he might hunt in prairie 

 countries for years and years and never get the chance. If 

 he wants bear he must hunt him afoot far hack iu the heavy 

 timber, in the swamps and thickets at the bead of thi hi avily 

 wooded ravines, where little streams trickle through the 

 dense underbrush and fallen timber. Here, where progress 

 is almost impossible and at the best slow and difficult, he 

 will find bear paths following the densest aud darkest part 

 of the- swamp. Here and there in the springy soil are bear- 

 wallows filled with ice cold water and with a bottom of deep 

 black mud. On the margin of one are the fresh footprints 

 of the great beast, aud perhaps themud is still slowly settling 

 from bis recent visit. On the hunter goes with the utmost 

 caution, pushing quietly through the heavy balsams until he 

 reaches a point in the swamp where great pii.e trees cast a 

 gloom over everything. Here, in a perfect tangle of pine, 

 balsam aud fallen timber, at the foot of the tall pines he 

 will find great circular nests dug deep in the warm "pine 

 lags," as cosy and comfortable as can be. This is the den 

 or lair of "Uncle Ephraim," the great bear. Barely, how- 

 ever, is he to be found at home. No game is so shy and 

 wary as he, and the hunter may daily force his way through 

 the most tangled thickets, taking all the advantage of the 

 wind and proceeding iu perfect silence, and yet rarely or 

 never see a grizzly. 



It is almost unnecessary to add that the man who hunts 

 hear in this fashion, trailing him patiently and carefully 

 through these dense swamps, really takes his life in his band. 

 If the monster rises suddenly and charges, even a lucky phot 

 through the heart will not always save the hunter from de- 

 struction; the brainshot is not always instant death; it is im- 

 possible to run; there is no time to climb; and with the brute 

 at arm's length but little elm nee to dodge. One's life may- 

 hang on iron neive, quickness and accuracy of aim, and 

 heavy metal. One stroke from those great claws and all is 

 over ! 



If a grizzly is jumped and runs, the rapidity with which 

 he gets through the snarl of vegetation is simply astonish- 

 ing. One afternoon, just before sunset, while bear hunting 

 afoot with a guide, we saw a grizzly slowly approaching. 

 We were in a dense pine forest on a mountain slope, where 

 the soil was hard and rocky. When he winded us he reared. 

 Unfortunately the trees masked him so that I could see but 

 a thin vertical slice of bear, and into that slice I put a bullet 

 from my No. 13. With the crash of the rifle the bear dis- 

 appeared as suddenly and completely as if the earth had 

 opened and swallowed him up. We ran after him at the top 

 of our speed to a little ridge beyond, but it was useless; he 

 had simply vauisheTl; thereWas no blood, and the stony soil 

 revealed no trail. Blood signs need not be expected," how- 

 ever, with grizzly when iu good condition, as the fat usually 

 plugs up the wound. 



A grizzly will sometimes lie quiet, when hidden in the 

 brush, and allow r the hunter to p"ss by at a few yards, as if 

 in grim disdain of his enemy. When jumped under these 

 circumstances the average bear will run, as will most dan- 

 gerous animals the world over. One reason for this is plain. 

 Bears, lions and tigeiS are essentially r, nigbt birds,'' and 

 when suddenly started up under the broad glare of noonday, 

 feel as it were bewildered, aud so slink away; but if jumped 

 after darkness has settled down, then look out for your- 

 self. Still the bear is uncertain in his temperament", and 

 while one will run, ihc next charge with the inmost ferocity. 



1 bad been bear hunting one morning for several hours 

 with the usual lack of success, all hough we had threaded 

 the niost likely thickets. A heavy storm of Tain and sleet 

 coming on discouraged us so that we returned to our ponies 

 and turned back for camp. Taking a short cut we rodeinto 

 aud endeavored to cross a very dense balsam swamp through 

 which ran a little brook. Cold and weary, soaked with the 

 heavy rain, we smashed our way noisily through, here jump- 

 ing laden trees or mudboles, [here dismounting to let the 

 horse get through a had spot alone. 



In the very midst, of the swamp we rode literally right 

 on to a grizzly, the great beast rising up from his nest 

 directly under the nose of the guide's'horsc. Here he had 

 lain, hearing all the noise of our hasty and careless ap- 

 proach, yet .making no sign and awaiting us with supreme- 

 indifference. But when he jumped, most fortunately for 

 us, he ran. We would have stood no chance mounted on 

 our horses and hemmed in by the tangled swamp. 



We spring from our ponies and run after the bear, firing as 

 we run. Then follows a mad chase through the muddy 

 recesses of the swamp and out into the more open forest. 

 Fiually I get a good chance aud give him a coupl/ 

 sive shells from my No. 13 near the tail, raking him fore and 

 aft. He does not run so fast now, and we catch up. and 1 

 give him a right and left iu the shoulder as he rears to jump 

 some fallen trees, and thus finish him. He settles down iu 

 a life-like attitude on the logs anil we come up and admire; 

 hut we do not go up and kick him — oh no! We divest him 

 of his overcoat and hold our usual autopsy and track out 

 the shots. Then we go back to our horscs'and find the car- 

 cass of an elk near where we had jumped him. This ac- 

 counted for his lack of pugnacity; having made a heavy 

 Thanksgiving kiudol dinner lie only wanted to be let alone. 



The nest afternoon I returned here With a guide. During 

 the night grizzlies had covered the elk carcass with dirt and 

 trash ; one tip of a horn alone protruded above the tempo- 



rary grave to show that a great elk lay beneath, Going 



down to leeward some forty- or fifty yards we hid ourselves 

 carefully and watched patiently but fruitlessly until after 

 dark. The next morning we returned again. 'The elk had 

 been dug up and nearly all devoured ; it was in a high slate 

 of decomposition, and'had evidently disagreed with some of 

 the bears. We still-hunted the swamp carefully, and found 

 nothing, although the mud was still setlliug m the bear 

 wallows. 



Watching a carcass by daylight is of but little use. I 

 have done it repeatedly until it was too dark to see the sights 

 of my rifle, but never getting a shot thus; and most hunters 

 have the same experience-. The grizzly usually feeds at 

 night, and no man in his senses would lire at him after dark 

 when he- could not be absolutely certain of his aim. 



Last year three men, one an old pioneer, were prospecting 

 near Elk Mountain, Wyoming. While iu camp one bright 

 moonlight night a large grizzly came near. They filed ou 

 him and the bear charged. Two of the men "treed" and 

 the third ran into the tent, where the bear followed aud 

 killed him. aud then retired to a jungle near by. The next 

 morning the survivors followed into this jungle and found 

 tfifl bear: the bear Charged and wiped out the pioneer. The 

 sole survivor then made tracks for the nearest ranch and 

 help. The story was that these men had each been killed by 

 a terrible bite on the left side of the body. 



Female grizzly are usually lighter iu color than the male, 

 and the average Western hunter, looking at their pelts, will 

 call them "cinnamon." The true cinnamon is a variety of 

 the black bear, although they grow sometimes to quite a 

 size. Those I have jumped have run, although one showed 

 fight when it was too late. We came on him while still- 

 huntiug in the snow, and wounded him so he could not 

 travel last ; when we caught up he turned on us, hut as he 

 did so he gave me the shot I wanted in the chest, and it was 

 all over with him. 



The ordinary black bear will run like a deer when jumped; 

 but for all that he is not the harmless innocent he is some- 

 times represented to be, that any man can conquer with a 

 walking-stick. The hooks are full of "bar-fites," of which 

 he is the hero, and the following telegram cut from a recent 

 paper shows what he is capable of, even east of the Alle- 

 ghanie.H: 



"Wilkesbarke, Pa., Dee. 29.— Yesterday afternoon the 

 dead body of a man was found lying in the snow near the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad track, below Retreat Station. The 

 tracks' of a bear were plainly distinguished, and the man's 

 clothing and person gave "evidence of a terrible struggle. 

 The body has not been definitely recognizee., but is supposed 

 to be that of a track walker employed by the railroad com- 

 pany." 



Trapping grizzly has its perils and excitements also. The 

 trap employed is of the double spring pattern, with steel 

 jaws, and weighs complete thirty-eight, pounds. The springs 

 are very powerful and have to be bent with levers. It Is 

 quite aii art to set and place a trap cunningly, and trappers 

 vary in their methods and are chary of explaining them. T 

 wili then pass this branch of the subject. Let us sup- 

 pose therefore that the hunter has made his camp iu a neigh- 

 borhood redolent of grizzlies, and that he has his traps set in 

 a likely place for bear. At the end of the trap chain is a ring- 

 about five inches in diameter, and this is driven about half a 

 foot over the end of a heavy stick or log five inches through 

 and six or eight feet long. The object of this "clog," as it 

 is called, is to make a trail which can be readily followed 

 and to hamper the hear sufficiently to prevent his 

 going to a great distance away before the hunter 

 can ~ arrive. Great care must be taken that the 

 chain be fastened to the extreme end of Ihe clog, in such a 

 way that it cannot get across two trees, and so give l fie 

 brute a chance to use his enormous strength to tear himself 

 loose. Neither must the clog be too large and heavy, or the 

 same, result will follow. It may be accepted as a maxim 

 that a grizzly caught in such a trap will eventually get 

 loos?, and ordinarily in a few hours. He is generally caught 

 by the extremity of the forepaw. just above the claws; the 

 hold on him is not vctv great ; his exertions to get away arc 

 tremendous, and result iu so cutting and lacerating the foot 

 that sooner or later he will tear out of the trap altogether. 

 Two grizzlies that I caught got away; one who was probably 

 taken by the claws alone leaving some hairs only to tell the 

 tale, the other leaving a small piece of his foot behind as a 

 souveuir. Many had all but toru themselves loose: in one 

 case the foot was almost cut through and only a small piece 

 of skiu the thickness of a man's little finger remained to 

 hold the terribly infuriated monster to the much detested 

 clog. 



The traps are set far back in dense and gloomy forests near 

 the tangled swamps where grizzly love to make their lair, 

 The ground is covered with fallen timber and travel must 

 be afoot and is slow and difficult. The bear ou being cam- lit 

 starts off with a tremendous rush for the swamp which is 

 close by. Here he catches on a rotten log for a second and 

 ploughs n path through wide enough for a cart, there he 

 hangs on two fallen trees fifty feet long, but he hangs for an 

 instant only, moves the great" trees to one side and rushes on. 

 Next he strikes agamst a tree, and in Ids rage turns and eats 

 the. whole side out of it. leaving Hie fresh while pine red wilh 

 blood stains from his gums. Now he reaches the swamp 

 and plunges deep into its recesses venting his rage on the 

 balsams and poplars, absolutely chewing down saplings aud 

 even gnawing them inlo lengths like stove wood. Ail this 

 time he is slow ly but surely tearing his foot loose from the 

 trap, and surely but not slowly is he working himself up into 

 the most tremendous degree of rage anil ferocity, 



When you base thus trapped a thousand-pound grizzly, 

 you have not caught a bear; you have simply caught the 

 devil incarnate! Indeed, the question sometimes "is, not 

 whether you have caught the bear, but whether you have 

 not simply given him a first-class opportunity to catch you! 

 Now let us see how this is. The grizzly thus caught, 'and 

 thus worked up inlo ihe most formidable ferocity, has to be 

 followed up afoot, first through a dense forest , anil then 

 carefully and laboriously into the heart of a tangled swamp, 

 where one cannot see ten steps ahead, and where, if the 

 monster should suddenly rise directly in front and charge, 

 trap, clou- and all. retreat would be absolutely Impossible. 

 Add to this that at the time of the hunter's arrival the bear 

 may have just succeeded in tearing his fool loose, or may 

 have just managed lo break his chain, or may have just 

 finished eating up the- clog bodily, all of which things have 

 happened iu my experience. He would then be in a beauti- 

 ful state of frenzy, and would be perfectly delighted to wipe 

 out a hunter or two if only to quiet down his nerves. Fur 

 thermore, the bear may nave retired into the bosom of his 

 family, and the hunter'takes the chance of running right Da 

 to several of these amiable animals at a time; so that, take it 



