2l6 



RECREATION. 



Out in the Western part of the new ter- 

 ritory, where alkali lands and salt plains 

 have proved uninviting to the homesteader, 

 I am told that the black capped vireo and 

 Cassin's sparrow nest now as they did in 

 other days; and where a plot of prairie 

 grass grows invitingly out there, the 

 prairie hen, the snowy plover and moun- 

 tain plover still make their nests ; but 

 civilization has driven my erstwhile bird 

 neighbors of ranching days "out of the 

 hitherwhere into the yon." 



A RECORD-BREAKING GRIZZLY. 



I am in sympathy with the spirit of G. H. 

 Tremper's comment on Powell's bear story 

 in October Recreation, though I challenge 

 the statement that there is no authentic 

 record of a bear of what he calls "the pre- 

 posterous" weight of 800 pounds dressed, 

 or about 1,200 pounds live weight. 



I agree that bears of that weight would 

 be hard to find nowadays, except, perhaps, 

 among the new species reported from 

 Alaska; but I think that when grizzly 

 bears were plentiful in California speci- 

 mens of even greater size were encoun- 

 tered. 



When I was a lad the fame of a man 

 known as Grizzly Adams, a mighty hunter, 

 filled the land. Many were the articles 

 written about him, and the account of his 

 capture of a particularly tremendous bear 

 was known to everyone. The enorn?ous 

 tracks and wonderful doings of this bear 

 were well known long before his capture. 



Adams, determined to catch him alive, 

 had a huge iron cage constructed in San 

 Francisco and transported to the region 

 frequented by the bear. It was arranged 

 as a trap and baited, as I recall it, with 

 honey and molasses. Adams was in the 

 end successful in trapping the monster and 

 exhibited it alive through the East. The 

 weight claimed for it was 1,900 pounds. 



There must be many persons still alive 

 who remember Adams and his bear and 

 can give us the facts in the case. I should 

 very much like to see my recollection of 

 this matter either corroborated or dis- 

 proved. 



C. H. Ames, W. Newton, Mass. 



ANSWER. 



There are few instances on record in 

 which a grizzly bear has been weighed 

 gross. In a great majority of reports as to 

 the weights of these animals the figures 

 have been based purely on guesswork. I 

 have investigated a number of cases where 

 men have said positively that grizzlies have 

 been killed that weighed so-and-so, and in 

 every case have learned that the bear was 

 not weighed, but good judges who saw him 

 estimated he would weigh so-and-so. 



As I have several times said in Recrea- 

 tion, I caused one large grizzly to be 

 weighed accurately. This was old Bob, 

 a famous bear that lived nearly his entire 

 life in Union park, Chicago. He was taken 

 there as a cub and died when a little over 

 18 years old. When it became known he 

 was nearing his end, the Park Commission- 

 ers presented him to the College of Physi- 

 cians and Surgeons, and I arranged with 

 the curator of that institution to have the 

 bear carefully weighed as soon as he died. 

 This was accordingly done, and old "Bob" 

 registered 1,153 pounds. Hundreds of old 

 hunters and mountain men from the West, 

 who saw Bob in his prime, said he was 

 one of the largest bears they had ever 

 seen, and they generally estimated his 

 weight at anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 

 pounds. For several years preceding his 

 death he was so fat he could scarcely walk, 

 and was in this condition when he died. 

 So he may well be termed a record break- 

 er. — Editor. 



WHERE EAGLES ARE A PEST. 



In September Recreation you say in an- 

 swer to Payson, "Yet I have never known 

 an eagle to kill a domestic fowl or lamb, 

 or to destroy any private property." 



On the S. M. ranch, 20 miles Southeast 

 of Roseburg, Oregon, eagles killed many 

 lambs. At one time John Tilman, L. Rob- 

 inson, Joseph Foreman and I saw 6 eagles 

 eating lambs that they had killed. 



The birds would alight in tree tops and 

 often attack a lamb as soon as it was born. 

 They would also kill lambs several days 

 old, and always, so far as I know, devoured 

 them on the ground, never carrying them 

 away, as I had before supposed they did. 

 When on the ground with the lamb you 

 could ride up close before they would fly, 

 often within 30 yards. 



In this way 18 eagles were killed by our 

 men during the spring of 1890. All were 

 black, or rather gray, eagles, except one 

 bald eagle. 



I have no desire to enter into a controv- 

 ersy with you or Mr. Hornaday and sim- 

 ply state the facts as I saw them. All the 

 persons named are alive, and if necessary 

 I will send you their addresses. 



At one time I rode within 30 feet of a 

 large eagle sitting on a freshly killed lamb. 

 The bird rose and alighted on a fir tree 

 about 50 yards distant, where it was shot. 

 W. O. Marks, Portland, Ore. 



ANSWER. 



Mr. Marks's letter proves anew that 

 there is no rule to which there are no ex- 

 ceptions. All fair-minded men must admit 

 that the situation described indicates an 

 abundance of eagles and an amount of de- 



