FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept, i, 1906. 
OO' 
A Band of Bears. 
An old mountaineer will advise you not to fool 
with a bear. And his advice is worth following. 
The man who goes into the mountains for the 
first time is likely to be crazy to kill a bear. After 
he has gained experience, he is quite willing to 
let the bears alone, if they will not interfere with 
him. Of course this advice is intended to apply 
only to the grizzly bear—the long-clawed species 
known in the mountains by as many names as he 
has colors. Cinnamon, range bear, silver tip, 
gray, black, and yellow bear are some of his 
names. The true black bear and his brown 
brothers—usually called pine bears or brown 
bears—are scarcely ever dangerous. There may 
be cases where people have been killed by these 
little fellows, but they are extremely exceptional. 
Ordinarily you could chase them with a stick, 
and even if you caught them and gave them a 
sound drubbing they would at most only give 
you a scratching in return, which, while it might 
leave a scar or two, would probably not per¬ 
manently injure you. 
He of the long claws is a very different crea¬ 
ture. Usually he is timid and will run from you 
like a deer, but he is very uncertain of temper, 
and you can never tell just what he will do. 
Sometimes when walking through thick hemlock 
or juniper sprouts, I have suddenly come upon 
these animals when they were lying down, and 
have caught a glimpse of them as they plunged 
into the undergrowth in rapid flight. I have 
never happened to meet with one that was really 
cross, but there are dozens of men who have. 
Old Jose Telemanche—Mexican Joe as we used 
to call him—told me many years ago something 
that occurred within a few yards of where he 
was sitting. He said: “We was camp on lill 
creek coming down through wide valley, me and 
two Injuns. We make camp ’bout tree o’clock, 
an’ after supper, one Injun, he go into brush, 
gather plums. Plums very plenty all ’long creek, 
plum brush ’bout high as man’s head. Bear he 
like plums too, an’ he in brush pickin’ plums. 
Injun go ’long pickin’ plums, put ’em in flour 
sack hung ’bout his neck. Bimeby Injun come 
near where bear sittin’ quiet, seein’ what make 
that cracklin’ in brush. Injun come ’long pickin’, 
pickin’, and bear just reach out an’ hit ’im. I 
sittin’ by fire smokin’, hear one yell. Then I 
jump for gun an’ run in brush, fin’ Injun lyin’ 
there, skull all smash in. Time we take ’im 
into camp, dead.” 
Some years ago, while I was in Deer Lodge, 
a man was desperately hurt under somewhat 
similar circumstances. He was picking berries, 
when a bear rose from the brush beside him and 
struck him. When I left the town he was in 
the hospital, and was not expected to recover. 
On the other hand, they are sometimes the veriest 
•owards under circumstances which would seem 
to call for bravery. Many years since I was 
attached to an exploring expedition which was 
investigating a region about which nothing was 
then known, but which has since proved one of 
the richest mining districts of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains. We had with us some Indian scouts, part 
of them Arickarees, and part Sioux. One day 
Cold Hand, an Ogallallah, and a young Ree came 
upon an old she bear and two well-grown cubs 
®n the open prairie, at some distance from the 
mountains. The bears ran as soon as they saw 
the Indians, and the latter pursued them on their 
ponies. The chase was a long one, but at length 
they overtook and killed first one of the cubs, 
and then the other. By this time their horses 
had given out and could go no further. Cold 
Hand was a cripple, his leg having been rendered 
useless by a bullet, and could only walk with a 
stick, so he remained behind to skin the cubs, 
and the Ree chased the old bear on foot, until 
she took refuge in a water hole, where he killed 
her. Writers are rather given to making the 
energy with which a she bear will defend her 
cubs, the superlative of ferocity; but in this case 
the simile would have failed. I once met a young 
man who told me that all the stories about the 
ferocity of the grizzly were untrue, and that they 
were no more dangerous than were deer. A 
little questioning revealed the fact that his ex¬ 
perience had been confined to two individuals. 
Both of these were small ones. One he had 
killed with his six-shooter, and the other he had 
chased for some distance over the open prairie 
without being able to come up with it. I have 
seen other men—old mountaineers, too—who bore 
on their bodies the marks of deadly conflict with 
these fierce brutes. One of these was covered 
with scars from the teeth and claws of the bear, 
his left hand and arm so crippled as to be of 
little use to him, and the left leg much shorter 
than his right; so that he had a very perceptible 
limp. He wound up the story of his fight by 
remarking that he wanted “no more bears in 
his'n.” 
People who kill bears usually do it for glory. 
It is true that the skin, when in good order, 
makes a fine robe, but this is scarcely induce¬ 
ment enough to lead a man to risk his life. The 
flesh of an adult bear is, to my opinion, un¬ 
eatable—in the sence that badger or coyote is 
so—though, of course, it all depends on how 
hungry you are. Young bear meat can be eaten, 
but is never desirable. When a man takes to 
hunting bear, therefore, it is usually because he 
is anxious to be able to tell of his exploits with 
this dangerous game. And recently a method 
has been devised by some prudent hunter, who 
was anxious for fame, but unwilling to run any 
risks, by which the dangers of this hunting have 
all been eliminated. Like all good things, this 
device has the merit of simplicity. The daring 
hunter starts out with a lot of heavy bear Waps, 
which he sets where the animals are abundant. 
He makes the round of his traps daily, and when 
he finds one gone, follows the trail of the clog 
or grapple until he comes within sight of the 
fugitive bear, when he opens fire on and kills 
him. The clog makes is impossible for the bear 
to catch the hunter, and he proudly carries home 
the skin which he has captured in so fair (?) a 
fight. This method of bear hunting originated, 
I believe, with an Englishman, but it has since 
been adopted by many of our own countrymen, 
who are wise and prudent, and who, while 
hankering after the glory of killing one, ten or 
twenty bears, are yet afraid to meet them on 
their own ground and take their chances in a 
square, stand-up fight. I do not speak of the 
method to condemn it. I have no sympathy with 
the bears. The}" are vermin, and the sooner they 
are destroyed the better. But I confess that I 
have as yet been unable to fathom the motives 
of the hunters who have in this way added to 
their tally of big game the name Ursus horribilis. 
Perhaps they are merely butchers, men who 
would, if it were not for fear of the penitentiary 
or Justice Lynch’s halter, kill the cattle on the 
r-mge simply for the pleasure of seeing blood 
flow. What satisfaction can be had in slaying 
a hampered animal, or skill can be displayed in 
shooting a bear whose foot is in a hundred-pound 
trap attached to a ten-foot clog, I am unable to 
see. Can any one enlighten me? 
But all this rambling gossip about bears is 
wholly foreign to the subject that I intended to 
write of. 
It was in June one year that the Boss saw his 
band of bears. The men are workers at the 
ranch, and when any one goes hunting from 
there it is ”sually because the camp is out of 
meat. On this dnv the sunplv had run low, and 
so. with John, the Boss left the house in the 
afternoon and climbed the hills thinking that he 
would kill an elk. A fat yearling heifer was 
what he wanted, or, if he could not get that, a 
young bull would do. For about this time the 
horns of the males stop growing, and they begin 
to take on fat, and so are much better eating than 
the old cows, each of which is suckling a couple 
of ever hungry calves. 
The trail up the mountain is steep, and every 
now and then they stopped to take breath. Be¬ 
low them was spread out the broad basin with 
its little streams and lakes sparkling and flashing 
in the afternoon sun. Through the clear air 
could be seen the far off peaks of the Park Creek 
Range and nearer at hand the lower Freeze Out 
Hills, and then still nearer the bright green 
prairie dotted with feeding cattle. 
The tableland being reached, they separated, 
John taking one little park, and the Boss the 
next one to the south, a timbered ridge running 
between the two. On reaching a likely looking 
spot, the Boss dismounted, and tied his horse, 
intending to walk through the timber, for one 
can always hunt more satisfactorily on foot than 
on horseback. He had proceeded perhaps a 
quarter of a mile through the forest, and was 
just going down a hill where the trees stood 
'further part than usual, when he saw through 
the trees on the other side of a little opening 
about twenty-five yards distant, a black mass 
lying on the ground. He could only see it in¬ 
distinctly, for the trees obstructed his sight and 
the light was dim. but he concluded that it was 
a bear and thought he would kill it. Stepping 
round a little to get a better view, he found a 
good opening through the trees, but just as he 
was about to fire, the mass moved, separated, and 
resolved itself into five bears. 
Without giving the Boss any great amount of 
time .for consideration, the largest of the five 
gave a loud snarl and rushed toward him. It 
was a vicious-looking brute, about the size of a 
two-year-old steer and quite dark in color. His 
mouth was open, his' white teeth gleaming, and 
the long red tongue swaying as he ran, as if he 
had traveled far and was hot. Two of the bears, 
both large, walked after him as he plunged along, 
rather as if they were curious to see what was 
the matter, than from any desire to do harm 
to any one. The Boss says he was scared, and, 
it may well be true, but I venture to say that if 
anyone had seen him standing in front of the 
onrushing monster, that person would not have 
been able to detect any signs of fear in the erect, 
alert figure. Once he shou*-ed loudly, hoping- that 
be might thus frighten the bear and check it 
for a while, but it only responded by another 
snarl. So he waited, and when the animal was 
so close to him that it seemed that another 
spring would bring it within arm’s length, the 
old rifle gave forth its stream of fire and lead, 
and the owner turned and rushed up the hill as 
fast as a man would naturally run with a thou¬ 
sand pound grizzly at his heels. There was no 
sound of the running beast immediately behind 
him. and when he had thrown another cartridge 
into his gun he threw a glance backward and 
saw that he was not pursued. At the top of 
the hill he paused and looked back. There on 
the ground where he had stood when he shot 
he saw the big bear lying on his back, and abmv 
him were walking two others, growling and 
'-ua-ling. while from the point where they had 
all been lying two more were annroaebino- th^i- 
mmnanions. The Boss was still within easy 
shooting distance, but he made up w mind that 
there were too many in the band for him to 
tackle, so he started off to hunt up reinforce¬ 
ments. 
He soon found John, and together they went 
back to the scene of the encounter. Traveling 
slowly and cautiously they reached the top of the 
hill, whence they could look down upon the 
