494 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Oct. 19, 1912 
A Bear Story 
BY WALTER B. SHEPPARD. 
I-Je jests at bears, to paraphrase, who never 
felt their claws. Some years ago, out hunting 
with a comparatively light gun, I deliberately 
avoided and left unharmed a bunch of three 
grizzlies, and when I returned to the little min¬ 
ing camp, near the Swift Current in Northern 
Montana, where I was staying, was laughed at 
only by those whose knowledge of this game had 
been derived from books or hearsay. Those 
mighty hunters before the Lord, Dan D. and 
Jack B., hearing the facts as to my armament and 
.environment, commended my decision heartily. 
And they were right, for although nine times 
out of ten, a grizzly is not dangerous, the tenth 
time he “means killing,” as the tailor-bird said 
to Rikki-tikki-tavi about the cobra. And when 
he does charge, he must be stopped, or he will 
get the hunter, providing the latter has no tree 
or-rock to climb. To stop a charging bear is a 
job to try the stoutest nerves. 
Jim B., now a prosperous ranchman and 
cattle breeder in Routt county, Colorado, came 
to the State about forty years ago when a boy 
of seventeen, and learned to shoot in the min¬ 
ing region about Breckinridge and Dillon. It 
was a tough neighborhood in those days, and 
there were frequent gun plays. One day, Jim 
was offered a commission as deputy sheriff, and 
without much thought or hesitation accepted it. 
He had scarcely put on his badge when a war¬ 
rant was handed to him to serve upon a cele¬ 
brated gun fighter, who had just killed his fifth 
man. The sheriff, afraid to tackle the job, had 
left town and pushed it on to Jim. then barely 
out of his ’teens. And Jim took the desperado, 
by sheer nerve, getting him out from a crowd of 
his friends, all armed and defiant, and without a 
shot. 
Afterward Jim drifted into trapping and mar¬ 
ket hunting, and became a more deadly shot than 
ever, slaying like Saul his thousands. It was a 
pleasure to watch him with his old single shot, 
breechloading, black powder Maynard, for he has 
never had any use for the smokeless, small-cali¬ 
ber gun. It never made any difference whether 
the game was coming or going or how fast. It 
was all one to him. He once took on five griz¬ 
zlies in a bunch, with this old single-shot gun, 
and bagged all but one. All this simply to show 
that Jim had “sand” in abundance, and as a 
preface to the point I want to make about bears. 
One day, among heavy quaking asp and 
down timber, on the Williams Fork of the Bear 
River, in Colorado, close to Pagoda peak, Jim 
ran across a big sow grizzly with a half grown 
cub. To make sure of keeping in reach, he 
dropped the cub first, making the shot while 
standing close to a good-sized aspen, up which 
he purposed to climb if he was rushed. As he 
expected, the infuriated mother charged him. 
“Now,” thought Jim. “I’ll let her get within thirty 
yards, and then I’ll shoot and climb the tree.” 
He shot for the “sticking-place” and she 
went end over end, coming to a stop as dead 
as a herring. Lucky this, for Tim. for when he 
shot and then started to shin up the tree, he 
found that while waiting for the bear to get 
close enough to shot, he had in his excitement 
kept backing away, over fallen logs and all, so 
that when the bear dropped she actually lay be¬ 
tween him and the tree. 
It was all a good joke, which Jim does not 
mind telling on himself. But it might easily have 
had a decidedly different ending. 
What is a Game Bird? 
Hendersonville, N. C., Oct. 7. —Editor 
Forest and Stream: I am handing you herewith 
a very good photograph of a pair of deer’s horns 
of whitetail deer, killed several years ago in the 
adjoining county of Transylvania. One good 
horn on one side of the head and two small 
NOTE PECULIAR HORN FORMATION. 
ones on the other side, this side rather swollen 
also— a freak, in fact. 
In a recent number of Forest and Stream 
is an interesting article or letter from a corres¬ 
pondent regarding “What is Game?” 
In my boyhood we called no bird a game 
bird that did not grow double feathers. In 
this class of course comes the turkey, grouse, 
partridge (quail), woodcock, snipe throughout 
their respective families, while pigeons, doves, 
larks and others we regarded as non-game birds. 
It now seems up to the law to class what shall 
be game birds under the law, and so robins are 
called game in many places and blackbirds and 
others, and doves are classed as game birds under 
the law. 
Each State (and in this State each county) 
makes its own game laws through the Legisla¬ 
ture, and the most absurd laws are passed each 
sitting of our Legislature. Ernest L. Embank. 
Quail in North Carolina. 
Raleigh, N. C., Oct. 2 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The year has been extraordinarily 
favorable for quail in North Carolina. To be¬ 
gin with, the winter was so severe and there 
were so many snows that relatively little hunt¬ 
ing could be done, and as a result, a great 
many birds escaped the sportsmen. Then, too, 
the summer was continuously hot and dry. Re¬ 
ports to the writer from many sections show 
that there were more double broods than 
usual. The writer has seen very large numbers 
of birds, not only in the section around Raleigh, 
but in other counties. 
The grouse in the mountain and upper 
Piedmont districts—always spoken of there as 
“pheasants”-—are also more numerous than 
usual, the writer was informed while tramping 
through a good deal of that region in August. 
There are some Mongolian pheasants in the high 
mountain region and in the middle Piedmont 
section and in Johnston county, which is east 
of Raleigh and near it. In some of the moun¬ 
tain counties, like Watauga, there has been 
protection of birds and fish for four years, and 
the effect has been very happy. 
Quail hunting can be enjoyed in a very 
large area of the State, and there are some 
counties into which few sportsmen from other 
sections go in which there is excellent quail 
shooting. Johnston is such a county, and it is 
very easy of access. Fred A. Olds. 
Zoological and Ethnological Collection. 
Within a few weeks the whaler Belvidere 
will arrive at San Francisco from the Arctic 
with a large collection of zoological and ethno¬ 
logical specimens made in that region during the 
past four years by Vilhjalmar Stefansson and 
Dr. R. M. Anderson for the American Museum 
of Natural History, New York. Stefansson has 
already returned from the North and Anderson 
will arrive with the collection. One of the feat¬ 
ures of the zoological collection made is the 
skins, skulls and leg bones of nineteen barren 
ground grizzly bears, embracing, it is believed, 
two distinct species. The barren ground grizzly 
attains a weight of 700 pounds, living on roots 
mainly. At the approach of winter, when it is 
very fat, it hibernates and apparently passes the 
winter without loss of energy, for in the spring, 
when it emerges from its winter quarters, it is 
still fat. During May and April, however, there 
are no roots to be had and the bear grows thin. 
Stefansson has brought .down an interesting ac¬ 
count of the discovery of a race of white Eskimos 
which he believes to be descended from Norse¬ 
men. Golden Gate. 
Telling the Bees. 
The custom of “telling the bees” is often 
referred to by those interested in curious hap¬ 
penings. In some parts of England it has al¬ 
ways been the habit to inform the bees when¬ 
ever there is a death in the family, particularly 
when it is that of the master or mistress. 
Someone raps upon the board supporting 
the hives and says: “Mourn with 11s. Master 
(or mistress) of the house is dead.” 
It is thought that if this duty is neglected 
the bees will die. and many old servants are 
fond of telling how the bees pine away when 
no one thinks to give them the sad message.— 
From the Ave Maria. 
