jvm 14, 1902. j 
FOREST AND* STREAM. 
468 
afraid of man, and it is interesting now to read these 
tales of their early prowess. 
"The strength and ferocity of the grizzly bear are so 
great that the Indian hunters use much precaution in 
attacking them. They are . reported to attain a weight 
exceeding 800 pounds, and Lewis and Clark mentioned 
one that measured nine feet from the nose to the tail, 
and say that they had seen a still larger one, but do not 
give its dimensions. This is far above the usual size of 
other land bears, and equals the larger specimens of the 
polar bear. Governor Clinton received an account of 
one fourteen feet long, from an Indian trader, but even 
admitting that there was no inaccuracy in the measure- 
ment, it is probable that it was taken from the skin after 
it was removed from the body, when it is known to be 
capable of stretching several feet. The strength of this 
bear may be estimated from its having been known to 
drag to a considerable distance the carcass of a buffalo, 
weighing about 1,000 pounds. The following story is 
well authenticated. A oarty of voyagers, who had been 
employed all day in tracking a canoe up the Saskatche- 
wan, had seated themselves in the twilight by the fire, 
and were busy in preparing their supper, when a large 
grizzly bear sprung over their canoe that was tilted 
behind them, and seizing one of the party by the shoul- 
der, carried him off. The rest fled in terror, with the 
exception of a metif, named Bourasso, who, grasping 
his gun, followed the bear, as it was retreating leisurely 
with its prey. He called to his unfortunate comrade 
that he was afraid of hitting him if he fired at the bear, 
but the latter entreated him to fire immediately, without 
hesitation, as the bear was squeezing him to death. On 
this he took a deJiberate aim and discharged his piece 
into the body of the bear, which instantly dropped its 
prey to pursue Bourasso. He escaped with difficulty, 
and the bear ultimately retreated to a thicket, where it 
was supposed to have died; but the curiosity of the party 
not being a match for their fears, the fact of its decease 
was not ascertained. The man who was rescued had his 
arm fractured, and was otherwise severely bitten by the 
bear, but finally recovered. I have seen Bourasso, and 
can add that the account which he gives is fully credited 
by the traders resident in that part of the country, who 
are best qualified to judge of its truth from their "know- 
ledge of the parties. I have been told that there is a 
man now living in the neighborhood of Edmonton 
House, who was attacked by a grizzly bear, which sprung 
out of a thicket, and with one stroke of its paw com- 
pletely scalped him, laying bare the scull, and bringing 
the skin of the forehead down over the eyes. Assistance 
coming up, the bear made off without doing him further 
injury, but the scalp not being replaced, the poor man 
lost his sight, although he thinks that his eyes are unin- 
jured. 
"Mr. Drummond, in his excursions over the Rocky 
Mountains, had frequent opportunities of observing the 
manners of the grizzly bears, and it often happened that 
in turning the point of a rock or sharp angle of a valley, 
he came suddenly upon one or more of them. On such 
occasions they reared on their hind legs and made a loud 
noise like a person breathing quick, but much harsher. 
He kept his ground without attempting to molest them, 
and they on their part, after attentively regarding him 
for soime time, generally wheeled round and galloped 
off, though from their known disposition, there is little 
doubt but he would have been torn in pieces had he lost 
his presence of mind and attempted to fly. When he 
discovered them from a distance, he generally fright- 
ened them away by beating on a large tin box, in which 
he carried his specimens of plants. He never saw more 
than four together, and two of these he supposes to have 
been cubs; he more often met them singly or in pairs. 
|He was only once attacked, and then by a female, for the 
purpose of allowing her cubs time to escape. His gun 
on this occasion missed fire, but he kept her at bay with 
the stock of it until some gentlemen of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, with whom he was traveling at the time, 
came up and drove her off. In the latter end of June, 
1826, he observed a male caressing a female, and soon 
afterward they both came towards him, but whether acci- 
dentally, or for the purpose of attacking him, he was 
uncertain. He ascended a tree, and as the female drew 
near, fired at and mortally wounded her. She uttered a 
few loud screams, which threw the male into a furious 
rage, and he reared up against the trunk of the tree in 
which Mr. Drummond was seated, but never attempted 
to ascend it. The female, in the meanwhile retiring to 
a short distance, lay down, and as the male was pro- 
ceeding to join her, Mr. Drummond shot him also. 
From the size of their teeth and claws, he judged them 
tG be about four years old. The cubs of the grizzly 
bear can climb trees, but when the animal is fully grown 
it is unable to do so, as the Indians report, from the form 
of its claws. Two instances are related by Lewis and 
Clark, and I have heard of several others, where a 
ranter having sought shelter in a tree from the pursuit 
)f a grizzly bear, has been held a close prisoner for many 
lours, by the infuriated animal, keeping watch below. 
The black and brown or even the polar bear ascend trees 
with facility. Some interesting anecdotes of contests 
with this bear, selected from the narratives of Lewis and 
Clark, Major Long, and others, are related in Godman's 
Natural History, to which the reader is referred. 
"The grizzly bears are carnivorous, but occasionally 
iat vegetables, and are observed to be particularly fond 
af the roots of some species of psoralea and hedys- 
irum. They also eat the fruits of various shrubs, such 
as the bird-cherry, choke-cherry and Hippoph<e can- 
adensis. The berries of the latter produce a powerful 
:athartic effect upon them. Few of the natives, even of 
:he tribes, who are fond of the flesh of the black bear, 
will eat of the grizzly bear, unless when pressed by 
lunger. Say and Gass mention a method which the 
Bboshonee or Snake Indians have of baking bear's flesh 
n a pit filled with alternate layers of brushwood and 
neat, and covered with earth, which is nearly similar to 
:he way in which the natives of the South Sea Islands 
prepare their dogs and hogs. 
"The grizzly bear inhabits the Rocky Mountains, and 
he plains lying to the eastward of them, as far as lati- 
ude 61 degrees, and perhaps still farther north. Its 
southern range, according to Lieutenant Pike, extends 
o Mexico. There is a brown bear on the Andes of 
Peru, but whether it is of this species or not is not 
known. Lewis and Clark could not ascertain that the 
grizzly bear at all inhabits the country between the west- 
ern declivity of the Rocky Mountains and the sea-coast, 
and remark that those which they saw about the great 
falls of the Columbia were more variegated in color, and 
of a milder disposition than those near the sources of 
the Missouri, but certainly of the same species. Mr. 
Drummond observes that the grizzly bears are most 
numerous in the woody country skirting the eastern base 
of the Rocky Mountains, particularly in districts which 
are interspersed with open prairies and grassy hills. 
They vary, he says, much in color, from a very light 
gray to a dark chestnut. The latter variety is common 
about the sources of the Peace River, and, according to 
the Indians, is more ferocious than the gray one. The 
black bear, which inhabits the same districts, and fre- 
quently varies there to a cream color, never associates 
with the grizzly bear. 
"The young grizzly bears and gravid females hiber- 
nate, but the older males often come abroad in the 
winter in quest of. food. Mackenzie mentions the den 
or winter retreat of a grizzly bear, which was ten feet 
wide, five feet high and six feet long. These dens are 
named watee by the Indians. As this bear comes 
abroad before the snow disappears, its footmarks are fre- 
quently seen in the spring, and when there is a crust on 
the snow, the weight of the animal often causes it to crack 
and sink for a yard or more round the spot trod upon. 
These impressions, somewhat obscured by a partial 
thaw, have been considered by the inexperienced as the 
vestiges of an enormously large quadruped, and the 
natives, although perfectly aware of the cause of the 
marks, are prone by their observations to heighten the 
wonder 'they perceive to be excited by them. Many 
reports of the existence of live mammoths in the Rocky 
Mountain range, have, I doubt not, originated in this 
manner. Necklaces of the claws of a grizzly bear are 
highly prized by the Indian warriors as prooof of their 
prowess." 
It is interesting to-day, when reports of the existence 
of live mammoths in Alaska are so frequently printed, to 
find in this volume, published in 1829, the possible ex- 
planation of the origin of the reports in those days. 
Another Rendering: of the Bobolink's Song-. 
The bobolink, so little regarded in the South, in his 
autumnal migration, is one of the most captivating song- 
sters we have in New England at this season. He ani- 
mates every bit of meadow with his carols, and as he rises 
to the top of, a last year's hardhack or mullein stalk, he 
reels off his ejaculation in a lot of mellifluous syllables 
and catch words with a tinkling ripple which sounds like 
liquid gurgling from a vial. Lovers of bird song will 
wantonly attempt to imitate, but his ragtime ditties are 
quite beyond human vocalization. And they seem never 
to be twice alike. As I hear them they sound something 
like this : "Okelee ! Lee ! Here I be, turalloo, tink-a-link, 
titterwit, link-link, peewee, quit, quit, willy, willy; that's 
me; quit, quit; twice as sweet-sweet — that's all!" 
Then he plumps down into the grass out of sight. 
. l C. H. 
Good Deacon Jones was crossing a muddy street car track. 
Good Deacon Jones, he slipped and fell upon his back. "Blank! 
Blank! Blank!" screamed a parrot in a cage across the way. 
''Thank you, my friend!" good Deacon Jones was heard to say.— 
Chicago Tribune. 
§zni# §z$ mul §uti 
— <$> — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Another View of It. 
Morgan TOWN', W. Va.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In April 19 issue of Forest and Stream, appeared an 
article by Didymus, headed "Every One to His Own 
Taste." 
I have waited several weeks, believing some big-game 
hunter would gently remind Brother Didymus through 
these columns that he is claiming for himself a right 
which he would deny to others, and his remarks would 
seem inconsistent from the standpoint of one whose chief 
interest is in big game. In speaking of Fred Mather and 
his writings, he says: 
"He seemed to entertain no love for the big game 
hunters, in which I heartily agree with him; their com- 
munications are the ones I skip. A bloodthirsty dispo- 
sition seems to have taken possession of scores of men 
who are ready to go through any amount of hardship 
week after week, hoping for a shot at a moose. If these 
men had even a touch of feeding they would hesitate to 
fire at such a noble beast without a feeling of certainty 
that the shot would be fatal.. * * * Mather said the 
pleasure of stopping a partridge in his wild career 
through the woods, or a woodcock as he sped on his 
whistling way through the bushes, would be far greater 
to him than putting a murderous bullet through a moose 
— in which I fully agree with him." 
Now here is where the inconsistency appears, from 
the standpoint of the moose hunter: putting the "mur- 
derous" bullet through the moose, and "stopping" the 
bird in its flight. 
From the moose hunter's point of view we would ask, 
is not the bird as susceptible of pain as the moose? Is 
not the grain of shot piercing through the vitals of the 
bird just as "murderous" as the bullet going through the 
moose? Then he speaks of the wounded moose escaping 
to die an agonizing death. 
The moose hunter might ask: Is there not just as 
large a percentage of birds escaping to die of their wounds 
as there is of moose or other big game? In the case 
of the bird, when shot at while flying, if it is not killed 
on the spot or winged, it passes so quickly out of sight 
and reach that there are not the painful evidences of its 
woitnded condition as appears in the case of big game, 
and the shooter can find solace in supposing that it was 
a clean miss, while the big game hunter knows for a 
certainty when he wounds his game. If Didymus thinks 
for one minute that big game hunters are "bloodthirsty" 
persons without a "touch of feeling," he doesn't know 
us all. Just why a hunter who kills big game should 
necessarily be without feeling any more than the killer of 
innocent birds is a hard one to figure out. No true 
sportsman will, and I dare say very few sportsman do, 
leave big game animals to die in the woods without first 
using every possible means to get them, and failing to 
do so, will have a remorse of feeling and regret which 
would be a stranger to the bird hunter. 
It has been my good "fortune to allow very few 
wounded big game animals to escape, although some- 
times averted only by long and tireless effort, when all 
chances seemed against me; but when unfavorable cir- 
cumstances have compelled me to abandon the pursuit 
of wounded game, my regret has been so deep as to keep 
me awake half of the night thinking of it. The few 
regrets of this nature which I can recall are the only 
unpleasant recollections connected with big-game hunt- 
ing which occur to mar the otherwise pleasant remin- 
iscences of past hunting experiences. 
Human natures differ so widely in their likes and dis- 
likes that for all of us to think and feel alike is impos- 
sible. 
Knowing this, it should be the aim of all to allow lib- 
erty of thought and feeling without undue censure. 
While Didymus expresses himself as "entertaining no 
love for the big-game hunter" and skipping their com- 
munications I, to be equally plain spoken, skip all, or 
nearly all communications from bird hunters and fisher- 
men, and pass on to that pertaining in some way to big 
game and its interests; not because I have not as much 
love for the bird hunter and fishermen, nor because I do 
not regard their sports as manlv and proper, but simply 
because nature has not inclined me to that kind of sport, 
and I am, therefore, not interested in it. In support of 
the big-game hunter it might be truly said that to suc- 
cessfully hunt big game calls forth more of the sturdy 
and enduring qualities of man than does the hunting of 
birds; and for the person who loves nature where it has 
been undisturbed by man — the wild forests in their vir- 
gin state, the surroundings of the bird hunter, which are 
for the most part in cultivated localities, seem very tame 
and unsatisfactory. 
Didymus seems to think it queer that scores of blood- 
thirsty men will go through any amount of hardship 
week after week in the hope of getting a shot at a moose. 
Not having any of the big-game hunting proclivities 
himself, perhaps he does not know that the hardships 
attendant upon big-game hunting are a part of the attrac- 
tion, without which it would lose much of its charm. 
To go by railroad to a first class hotel, from which the 
moose hunter might go out a mile or two on a fine day 
and kill his moose without undergoing any of the hard- 
ships would be to the true big-game hunter like eating 
meat without salt. Something would be lacking to make 
it a trip pleasant to recall. 
Could Didymus experience the wild, uncontrollable 
yearnings of the writer, not specially to kill something, 
but just to get away in vast unbroken forests where the 
big game lives, and be with them, he would not skip 
the correspondence of big-game hunters, which savors 
so strongly of the wilderness, and is the very essence of 
life to one possessed of such a nature. We can cultivate 
our .tastes and inclinations to some extent, but these 
•distinctive characteristics which are born in us, and 
which develop unconsciously, will not bend to cultivation, 
but must have their free course. 
In talking to a neighbor once who was reading For- 
est and Stream every week I mentioned something 
concerning a recent interesting account of hunting, and 
he said he knew nothing of it, as he never read any- 
thing only fishing news and accounts, while I never even 
glanced at anything pertaining to fishing. For either of. 
us to try by cultivation to acquire each other's tastes to 
the exclusion of that which nature intended for us, would 
be a vain effort. Thus has nature afforded us big game, 
small game, birds and fishes, to suit all tastes and inclina- 
tions of sportsman, and why has it been provided if not 
to be hunted and killed: the moose as well as the bird. 
It is probably as difficult for one not interested in bi' L 
game and its pursuit to- understand the feeling which 
prompts a man to go through the attendant hardships of 
a big-game hunt, as for an artist whose whole mind is 
wrapt up in art to understand the interest with which the 
live merchant will read the Boot and Shoe Recorder, or 
the Dry Goods Economist. What is intensely interest- 
ing for one to read, may be like so much blank paper to 
another, and yet the two may be equally intelligent. 
So, brother big-game hunters, don't be discouraged or 
feel slighted just because friend Didymus does not have 
any love for you, and skips your communications, for 
here is one— and scattered all over the land are hosts of 
others— who look eagerly for your communications each 
week, as the good old Forest and Stream comes 
around. It is several years since I have been among .big 
game and probably may not be among it again; certainly 
not as I have been; and all I have now to fill the vacant 
place is to read of others who are more fortunate than 
myself, and can report from time to time what is doing 
in the big' woods. Emerson Carney. 
Thomas W. Fraine. 
Paterson, N. J. —Editor Forest and Stream- There 
died in Rochester, N. Y., early in May, a man who was 
widely known and beloved, Thomas W. Fraine, taxider- 
mist and sportsman. As a taxidermist it is not too much 
to write of him that he was without an equal in his pro- 
fession; he devoted his life to the study of his work 
knew his subjects in life and reproduced them true to 
life. A finished work of his was as true to nature as it 
was possible for human skill to accomplish At the 
Sportsmen's Show in Madison Square Garden his ex- 
hibit always elicited admiration and praise. No less an 
authority than President Roosevelt complimented Fraine 
upon the excellence of his work. Many went to the last 
Sportsmen's Show and turned away in disappointment 
because Fraine was not there. His one idea was the ele- 
vation and advancement of sportsmanship. He visited 
the woods, fields and streams to study nature which he 
loved, never seeking to bag game for the sake of quantity ■ 
