March 2$, 1505^ 
the cubs, and eventually he tamed them, and made one 
of them, Lady Washington, his constant companion in 
camp and on the trail. He says he frequently snuggled 
up to the furry back of the bear at night to keep warm, 
and that she was as docile and companionable as a dog. 
He even taught her to carry a pack and draw a sledge, 
and frequently she assisted him in combats with wild 
bears. 
Adams found a great variety of animals in eastern 
Washington, and spent the summer hunting and trapping 
there. He had many hand-to-hand encounters with bears, 
wolves, elk and buffalo, and caught a great number of 
Sanimals in traps.' The traps were solid log cabins about 
'ten feet long, five wide and five high, the parts firmly 
i inned, with sliding doors at the ends, usually built be- 
uveeii two trees for greater strength. From his descrip- 
Lion. of . the construction, setting and baiting of traps, I 
find that I followed precisely his methods, and a picture 
of one of my bear traps would do^ very well to illustrate 
iiis plan, of operations. 
Here is a passage from the book which, I think, must 
be credited to the author rather than to old Grizzly 
Adams. A coyote assailed him in the dark, boundirig at 
liim furiously from a clump of brush. He says : "I dis- 
idained to notice him, and passed on; but the whelp, im- 
iagining probably that my contempt was fear, followed, 
■ibarking and howling, keeping just far enough behind 
uhat a kick would not reach him. Such conduct, even in 
;i brute, provoked me, and, drawing my i-evolver, I cried : 
'Die, base beast, unworthy the boon of life; take the 
reward of your audacity !' A shot felled him ; when, plac- 
ing my foot upon his neck and plunging my knife through 
his heart, T exclaimed: 'Die, coward of the wilderness!' 
;ind kicked the body from me." 
Imagine old Grizzly Adams going through such a far- 
rago of theatric mock-heroics over a coyote ! 
Again the author of "The Adventures" makes old 
;\dams say of the African lion and the cougar: "They 
ibotli belong to a genus which I cannot better describe 
irhan by calling them sneaks." A cougar — Adams calls 
lie animal a panther — had sprung upon one of his mules, 
nissed his stroke and run away, whereupon he makes 
this comment: "We found where this sneak had been 
lying in wait for prey, and whence it had doubtless leaped. 
It jivas, not far from a fountain where animals congre- 
oatcTl, thus affording a fine field for treachery and assas- 
-ination." - 
Fine sentiment to put into the mouth of one who, like 
;hc cougar, was making his living by lying in wait where 
animals congregated and killing them with guns, or 
ADAMS AND LADY WASHINGTON. 
treacherously luring them into traps and assassinating 
them when they were helpless prisoners. 
While in Washington, Adams joined forces with three 
Texan hunters, and the party made great slaughter of 
bears, deer, elk, bufi:"alo, wolves, antelope, foxes and fur- 
bearing small animals, and had many thrilling adven- 
tures. One day they came upon a large grizzly and two 
cubs, and Foster, one of the Texans, thinking he could 
kill a beai- as easily as a buck, attacked them prematurely. 
He wounded the old bear and then ran for a tree when 
she charged, but before he could climb out of reach the 
bear seized his feet and dragged him to the ground. 
"Time and again," says Adams, "had I cautioned Fos- 
ter, as alsO' the others of my comrades, if ever they fell 
in the power of a grizzly bear to lie perfectly still and 
show no signs of life, however severely scratched and 
bitten they might be. I myself have tried the efficacy of 
feigning death, and there have been cases where a bear 
would leave a pretended dead man perfectly unharmed, 
but return and exhibit the greatest fury upon his attempt 
to move. It is therefore no more than prudence, in such 
cases, to remain perfectly passive and quiet until the 
animal is beyond sight and hearing. 
"But poor Foster, in his extremity, forgot these in- 
junctions, and not only shrieked for help, but struggled 
to get away. I immediately drew my knife and rushed 
toward him, with, the object of attracting the brute's at- 
tention; but before I could approach, the bear, with one 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tearing grasp, ripped through his breast and drew out 
the heart, liver, stomach and intestines — presenting to my 
gaze one of the most awful sights that ever my eyes 
beheld. 
"The bear pawed and snuffed at the poor man's en- 
trails, and in a few minutes was joined by her cubs, 
which no sooner smelt the blood than they became Iran- 
lie with fury. I was much agitated, but ran to a tree, 
and taking as deliberate an aim as was possible under 
ihe circumstances, pierced the old bear behind the 
shoulder. She fell, but in a few minutes got up and 
tried to rush toward me, when a second shot at the 
butt of the ear penetrated her brain ■ and ended her 
cxist(?nee." • 
Adams relates an incident to show the astonishing 
ONE OF AT.r.F.N KET.T.y's BEAR TRAPS, "MONARCH" STYI^E. 
vitality of the grizzly. FIc and his companions fired a 
volley" at. a bear, and then followed the lieeing animal's 
trail for seven or eight hundred yards. They found her 
dead, with bullets through her head, heart and bowels, 
and several in the fat of her sides. 
Adams's armament consisted of a Kentucky rifle, 
carrying a 30-to-the-pound ball ; a Tennessee rifle, 60-to- 
the-pound ; a Colt's revolver, and a Bowie knife. When 
hunting bears he appears to have carried both rifles, and 
evidently he needed both usually. . 
As a result of the season's work iin Washington, 
Adams took to Portland a remarkable collection of live 
animals, furs and skins. His caravan consisted of 
thirty-eight horses and mules, packed \yith, skins, meat and 
small animals in boxes, and this strange herd of driven 
captives : six bears, four wolves, four deer, four ante- 
lopes, two elk, and an Indian dog. , He reached Port- 
land after a hard journey down the Columbia; and 
shipped the entire collection, except Lady Washington, 
to Boston, where his brother sold the animals to 
museums. 
Adanfs returned to -his old camp at' the headwaters 
of the Merced, and spent the winter in hunting Joi: me.at 
and peraparing for a trip to the Rocky Mountains. 
In 1854, Adams, accompanied by a man named Gray 
and several Indiansj besides two pet bear^, crossed the 
Sierra Nevada through the snow, hunted cougars in the 
Humboldt range, traversed Nevada and the Great Basin 
of "Utah, and established his hunting camp in. the 
Rockies. He returned in August with two bears, two 
panthers, two deer, two wolves, various skins, and a 
thousand dollars in coin. He found the Rocky Mountain 
silver-tip more inclined than the Californian grizzly to 
quarrel with man, but neither so large nor so formidable 
a foe. Of the varieties of the species he was acquainted 
with, Adams said : 
"The grizzly of the Rocky Mountains seldom, if ever, 
reaches the weight of a thousand pounds; the color of 
his hair is almost white; he is more disposed to attack 
man than the same species in any other regions, and 
has often been known to follow upon the human track 
for several hours at a time. It was this bear which 
first became known to the enlightened world; and from 
him the species was appropriately named grizzly. Among 
hunters he is known as the Rocky Mountain white bear, 
to distinguish him from other varieties. 
"The Californian grizzly sometimes weighs as much as 
two thousand pounds. He is of a brown color, sprinkled 
with grayish hairs. When aroused, he is, as has been 
said before, the mo^t terrible of all animals in the world 
to encounter; but ordinarily will not attack man, except 
under peculiar circumstances. It is of this animal that 
the most extraordinary feats of strength are recorded. 
It is said, with truth, that he can carry off a fulFgrown 
horse or buffalo, and that, with one blow of his paw, he 
can stop a mad bull in full career. When roused, and 
particularly when wounded, there is no end to his cour- 
age; he fights till the last spark of life expires', fearing 
no odds, and never deigning to turn his heel upon the 
combat. It is to him that the appellations of science, 
Ursus ferox and Ursus . fyorribilis, are peculiarly ap- 
plicable. ' ■ 
"The grizzly of Washington and Oregon Territories 
resembles the bear of California, with the exception that 
he rarely attains so large a size, and has a browner coat. 
FI is hair is more disposed to curl and is thicker, owing to 
the greater coldness of the climate. He is not so savage, 
and can be hunted with greater safety than either the 
Californian or Rocky Mountain bear. In New Mexico, 
the grizzly loses much of his strength and power, and 
upon the whole is rather a timid and spiritless animal," 
In the fall of 1854 Adams captured in the Sierra 
Nevada an immense grizzly whose weight was over 1,500 
pounds. He named this bear Samson. The manner" of 
capture, the incidents of moving the bear from trap to 
2Bi 
cage, the animal's size and exhibitions of prodlglotis 
strength, as told in the Adams book, are substantially 
like the true story of Monarch^ — not the amazing fiction 
of Bre'r Seton's concoction. 
Adams hunted during the rest of the season on Kern 
River, and made a trip to the Tejon region, where he 
built traps and tried in vain to capture a large spotted 
animal, presumably a jaguar. The jaguar is not believed 
to be a native of California, but it is probable that speci- 
mens sometimes wander up north of their usual range. 
The description given by Adams of the animal he saw 
fits the jaguar perfectly, and when I was hunting in the 
same region in 1889, mountaineers told me that- they had 
seen a great spotted cat, larger than a cougar, in the 
roughest part of the mountains south of the San Joaquin 
Valley. I never saw the animal, although I did see tracks 
considerably larger than those of any ordinary cougar. 
Hittell's account of the adventures of Grizzly Adams 
ends with the establishment of a menagerie in San Fran- 
cisco, where Adams gave exhibitions with his trained 
animals. The closing words of the book, Adams sup- 
posed to be speaking, are : "If I could choose, I would 
wish, since it was my destiny to become a mountaineer 
and grizzly bear hunter of California, to finish my career 
in the Sierra Nevada. There would I fain lay (sic) 
down with the Lady, Ben and Rambler at my side ; there 
surely I could find rest through the long future, among 
the eternal rocks and evergreen pines." 
Grizzly Adams did not end his life as he wished. He 
brought his animals to New York by way of Panama 
and exhibited them to the wondering people of the East. 
But he was not a good business man, and did not make a 
financial success of the enterprise. When he got into 
difficulties, F. T. Barnura bought his outfit and hired 
him to exhibit the animals in Barnum's Museum. Sam- 
son was the star attraction, and was advertised by 
Barnmn as weighing considerably more than a long ton. 
There was excitement on Broadway now and then when 
Samson was reported to be on the rampage and about to 
break out of his cage, and once, when workmen were 
moving the cage, the bear really did come very near to 
an escape; but James Conlin, later well known as a 
shooting master, punched him back with a crowbar, and 
prevented a panic. . 
One; of ,the captive bears was a vicious, dangerous 
creature, and »one:,day. she reached through the bars and 
raked Adams's scalp half , off "his head. The old man 
went to a' hospital' for repairs, ' and. while he was away 
there was nobody to put ithe trained animals through 
their daily performance, whereat Barnum became peevish, 
and insisted that Adams i^turn to duty. The oldi man 
did return before he was /entirely fit, and the cinnamon 
., :^-,:wi ''^-^ 
SAMPSON. 
reached him again and raked his half-healed scalp down 
over his face. Erysipelas or blood-poisoning ensued, and 
Grizzly Adams died in the hospital. 
When Barnum's Museum was destroyed by fire, the last 
of Grizzly Adams's animals perished in the flames. 
Jlnotber 100 Spomwien^s ffnas. 
Sandwich, Mass., March 12.— Selectman E. W. Haines,,^ 
who is also a dory fisherman, made an unprecedented 
catch in the bay here yesterday afternoon, pulling from 
the bottom of the bay, where the water is 66 feet deep 
by actual measurement, an old gray loon, hard and fast 
to a baited hook that had been set for codfish. It has 
always been supposed that loons made their feeding 
grounds in shallow places until Mr. Haines found the 
one caught in his codfish trawl yesterday, which would 
seem to prove that deep water is no hindrance to them 
when they are in search of food. Mr Haines says the 
hook caught the loon through the breast, and it was so 
firmly imbedded that it had to be cut out. Since the find- 
ing of the loon on the cod hook some of the fishermen 
believe that_ these fowl have been in the habit of robbing 
the well baited hooks in the past. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
New York, and not to any individual connected with tiiic paper- ' 
