April, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
155 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE GRIZZLY 
SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN OLD HUNTER WHILE ON THE TRAIL OF 
ONE OF OUR MOST INTERESTING AND SAGACIOUS WILD ANIMALS 
I N reading Dr. Pope’s account of 
“Hunting the Grizzly With the Bow,” 
in the October, 1920, Forest and 
Stream, I was surprised to learn that 
it was possible to kill them so easily. 
Another thing that surprised me was 
the number of people he cited as having 
been attacked by grizzlies. 
I once had some curiosity to find out 
if a grizzly would attack a person at 
night so I slept in a trail that appeared 
to be used by one every night, and I was 
not disturbed. There may be some truth 
in a friend’s explanation of why the 
bears never bothered me. He said that 
“when a bear comes along, he just rolls 
you over, calls you dead and goes on.” 
The Yellowstone Park bears have been 
protected so long, that itis no wonderthey 
are rather impudent; but grizzlies don’t 
always act that way. An old partner of 
mine once told me how he and three 
other hunters went to sleep one night 
around a fire; the fire went out during 
the night and in the morning there was 
a bear’s track in the ashes. 
I can almost match that with an ex- 
perience of my own. Two of us were 
trapping beaver on the Piney late one 
spring. We camped about a hundred 
yards from the creek and did not put 
up our tent. I killed an elk and in- 
tended to make a rope of his hide. I 
got the hide partly grained and threw 
it in a hole that was filled with water 
situated about half way to the creek. 
The next morning I found that the hide 
had been dragged out of the water and 
the part that was grained had been 
eaten out by a bear. My friend had 
skinned a beaver in camp the day be- 
fore and had thrown the carcass only 
far enough from camp to be out of the 
way. Doubtless that had attracted the 
bear. 
HAVE wounded at least two grizzlies 
at very close quarters and neither of 
them charged. One was in the Big 
Snowy Mountains. I followed him into 
a canyon where the snow was very deep. 
He stuck his head over the roots of a 
fallen pine about 20 yards off and I 
fired, expecting to break his neck. He 
fell and rolled down within ten steps of 
me, and I soon saw that he was going 
to get up. I shot him in the body and 
he got up, headed towards me. I wal- 
lowed through the snow until I got an- 
other cartridge in my 40-90 Sharps and 
when I turned he was in the brush and 
climbing the mountain. He got away. 
The other one was near the head of 
Pumpkin Creek, in a little brushy gully. 
The brush was probably 20 yards wide 
with prairie on both sides. I had killed 
a deer the day before and this day I tied 
my horse near by and started on foot 
for the place where I had left the deer. 
Before I got to the deer and, while I was 
close to the brush, I disturbed a big 
grizzly lying in a wet, mossy place. He 
By JAMES S. PATON 
acted as a fat, lazy pig would have done 
under the same circumstances : raised up 
on his fore feet, stuck his ears forward 
and sniffed. I thought of the advise my 
two experienced partners had given me 
a few days before: that the best thing 
to do in such a case would be to slip 
away. 
He was not more than ten steps away, 
and I was on a bank. I thought I would 
aim at him anyway and see if my 
nerves were quite steady. They were, 
and I shot in his ear, but being above 
him the bullet went below his brain. 
I got back from the edge of the brush 
and he lay and howled. My horse was 
Photo by Frederick K. Vreeland. 
The grizzly bear (Lrsus horribilis) 
50 or 100 yards off and I thought I had 
better get him, but when I got back I 
could not find the bear. 
I once shot in a black bear’s ear on 
Vancouver Island, but I did not get him 
that day, though I got him the next, and 
found the bullet had gone straight in 
his ear and would have killed him if I 
had been on a level with him. He was 
behind a boulder on top of a high ledge 
of rock and I could just see the top of 
his head. He climbed the mountain 
and got into a steep narrow slide that 
I was in. I let him come pretty close 
before I tried to shoot. My rifle 
snapped. The bear tried to stop and 
the way he tore up the snow was a 
sight, but he managed to stop before 
he got to me. He turned sideways, 
bowed his neck, and sidled towards 
me a little and I kept snapping at him. 
Then he decided he had better get 
away. 
There was a bunch of brush near by 
and he walked towards that, stopping 
every few steps to look at me. I fired 
just after he disappeared and missed, 
but I found him on top of a ledge of rock 
the next morning. He commenced 
walking slowly towards me with his 
head down. I shot him through the head 
and he rolled over the bluff. 
I GOT one bear skin that was the color 
of a silver fox. It was almost black 
except for the silver hairs on the 
fore parts. 
I was hunting in the Crazy Mountains 
north of Livingston, Montana, for elk, 
deer and antelope. One day my partner 
brought in the hind quarters of an elk 
on his horse. He told me that he had 
hung the fore quarters up in a tree. He 
also told me that he had seen tracks 
of a big bear. He said his dog was a 
good bear dog and that if I would go 
with him the next day he thought we 
could find the bear. 
We started together the next morning 
and when we came to where he had hung 
up the fore quarters of the elk, we found 
them gone. He followed the trail with 
the dog and I kept higher up the moun- 
tain. I soon came to a thicket of small 
pines, and skirted along the edge. Later 
I heard a bear running in the thicket. 
When I got to the upper side of the 
thicket my horse smelled the bear and 
I knew he must be near by. 
When I got to the top of the ridge I 
met my partner coming back. He said 
the dog had taken the back trail, and 
he had called him off and we would 
have to try again some other time. I 
told him where the bear was, and we 
were soon at the place I had last heard 
him. 
He was near the edge of the thicket, 
and stayed there snuffing and grunting. 
The dog barked at him but would not go 
near him. I went to the edge of the 
thicket and lay down, thinking I might 
be able to see him but I could not. Then 
I got on my horse and rode into the 
thicket thinking I might be able to drive 
him out. The dog then acted better and 
I could see where they were by the bushes 
shaking, but I could not tell just where 
the dog was, so did not shoot. 
The bear walked around me and went 
into the heart of the thicket, but there 
were so many fallen trees there that I 
did not care to follow. 
My partner then went around to the 
opposite side of the thicket with the dog 
and I sat still on my horse in the thicket. 
Being on horseback I could see over the 
tops of the little pines and I soon saw 
them parting as the bear crowded 
through them coming straight towards 
me. I let him come within twelve steps, 
then pointed my rifle at a spot below 
where the bushes were parting and fired. 
The bear fell. 
My horse moved a little and I saw a 
patch of hair and fired several shots at 
it. Then my partner came up and said: 
“Have you got him?” “Yes,” I said. “I 
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