4 8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 12, 1907. 
A Bear Hunt at San Pascual. 
“Juego la copa de oro y gano” (I play the 
cup of gold and win), said Jose Guero, as we 
were all seated in the big sala of the old adobe 
house on the San Pascual ranch playing burro 
tisnado. 
"That’s all right,” said the big Missourian, 
yawning noisily; “why don’t you fellows-show 
us some of your celebrated bear hunting you 
talk so much about? I’ve been on this ranch 
a year and haven’t seen a bear lassoed yet, 
though there’s tracks around pretty near every 
day; blamed if I don’t begin to think it’s a 
California yarn about lassoing bears, anyhow.” 
“Well,” said Chato, “if anybody wants to 
lasso a bear, one nailed* the old mare’s colt last 
night down by the oak corral, and from the num¬ 
ber of tracks there must have been at least six 
of them; anyhow, there was an old one with 
some half-grown cubs. They made a close call 
on the old mare; but only tore a strip of meat 
off her side.” 
Don Jose Sotelo, a gray-haired man of sixty 
years, who had been major domo of the Chino 
ranch in its palmiest days, looked up from 
the corner where he was preparing hair from 
a horse’s mane to be made into a hair rope, 
and began to manifest an interest in matters 
going on around him. 
“Carrai! you can revenge the old mare if you 
want to. There’s nothing I’d like better.” 
Jose Navarro, the head vaquero, replied; 
“We’ll trade her for a bear—perhaps two; if 
we don’t, some of the Doctor’s fine colts will 
get a call one of these nights, besides the mare 
is old, and if we are lucky we can have a 
good time and a big bear fight on the Diez 
y Seis de Septembre.” 
Don Jose’s eyes shot a glance of contempt 
at the “if” in his son-in-law’s remarks. The 
old man was said to have lassoed and tied a 
dozen bears at Chino without assistance. 
“Well,” said one of the boys, “let’s do it 
now while Don Jose is here and we have a 
full moon to work by.” This was greeted 
by a yell of approval. 
After being urged by all present, particularly 
the Yankees. Don Jose consented to lead the 
bear hunt. After a general discussion of the 
subject, it was decided, this being Sunday, that 
all could be gotten in readiness for the neck¬ 
tie party by Tuesday night. 
[Et is many, many years since the fashion of roping 
and taking alive the great California grizzly passed 
away. That it used to be done we all know, yet this 
knowledge comes to us rather by tradition and hearsay 
than through the testimony of eye witnesses. It is 
especially interesting, therefore, to be able to read this 
account of the last bear hunt at San Pascual by Mr. 
Hancock M. Johnston, who took part in it. San Pascual 
is the site of the present Pasadena. 
At that time, nearly half a century ago, the ranch was 
the property of Mr. Johnston’s uncle. Dr. John S. 
Griffin, who came to California in 1849 with Gen. Phil. 
Kearny, who was Dr. Griffin’s cousin on the mother’s side. 
The native Californians who took care of the stock on the 
ranch had difficulty in pronouncing the names of many 
the Americans, and thus applied to them nicknames, 
or called them by the nearest approach that they could 
make to the American name. Thus a man named Sid 
was called “El Cir”; on? named George, “Cheorchie.” 
Such terms as sanchez, chineno, garfia and so forth, ap¬ 
plied to horses, refer to their brand. The sanchez horse 
having belonged to a man named Sanchez and bearing 
his brand; the chineno bearing the brand of the Chino 
(Willow) Ranch, and so on. 
Some years after the events recorded in this account, 
the ranch in question was sold to the Indian colony, and 
afterward became the now famous Pasadena. The old 
adobe ranch house long ago disappeared, the spring 
under the spreading oak has been boxed in, but it is 
still a lovely and romantic spot.— Editor.] 
El Burrero viego (the old donkey herd) and 
El Cir, a young nephew of the owner, were 
delegated to invite Jose lenero (the wood 
cutter), a noted bear sharp, and also to .have 
the bait prepared and make all arrangements. 
Don Jose and Navarro were detailed to select 
each man’s best broken and bitted horse and 
put it in condition for the work ahead. These 
horses are so skilfully trained .that with only a 
twine string for reins, they can be stopped at 
full speed, whirled around or even thrown on 
their side. 
Poking a good deal of fun at each other, the 
Californians and the skeptical Americans went 
to bed in first-class humor, looking forward 
to any amount of fun and enjoyment in the next 
few days; the Americans feeling that when the 
hunt was over, if there was no bear tied, they 
would have the laugh on the natives for all time. 
Next morning long before daylight all had 
breakfasted and scattered to carry out their 
respective duties connected with the big hunt. 
By daybreak the horse band was corralled, and 
as we rode away we saw Don Jose and Navarro 
selecting our horses. We three went to find 
the old mare, the others to search for the bear’s 
regular trail from -the mountain. We roped 
the mare without difficulty and led her along 
the edge of the bajeo, meeting El Cir and his 
party as agreed near the oak corral. They had 
found the trail along a wood road which filed 
down a very narrow canon into the Arroyo 
Seco, a general place of refuge for thieves and 
murderers in those early days. The trail was 
immediately alove the corral de robles, so- 
called because it was built of oaken logs placed 
on end; it was used for convenience when brand¬ 
ing horses and cattle. 
After carefully examining the location, we 
brought the old mare up to the edge of the 
bajeo, which is a low, flat piece of land; this 
one was as smooth as a floor, a mile and more 
wide and about three miles long, running south¬ 
easterly across the San Pascual ranch, the site 
of the present City of Pasadena. Here we 
killed the mare, and dragging the paunch, made 
a circuit of about ten miles by way of the 
Canada de las flores and Precipice Canon, 
thence across the Plain of Flowers above Loma 
Colorado (now Monk’s Hill), down through the 
Rincon to the Arroyo Seco bank, from whence 
we followed the bank back to the mare’s body. 
This was done to enable the bear to follow the 
scent of the carcass. 
By the time we had finished it was late in 
the afternoon; we had long been thinking of 
bean stew and coffee, so we left for the ranch, 
where we found that Don Jose and Navarro had 
been as busy as we. We reported to the Don, 
attended to the tired animals and seated our¬ 
selves to a savory supper, to which we did 
ample justice. 
When candle light came each man busied him¬ 
self putting on new latigos, replacing all weak 
strings in every part of the saddle, bridle and 
spurs;' going over every strand of his riata, 
until nearly midnight, when we all turned in. Next 
morning by sunrise a messenger was dispatched 
to visit the carcass. By early breakfast time 
lie reported that there was about one-third 
gone; that where the paunch had been dragged 
over sandy places in roads, the bear tracks 
were so thick it looked as though they had 
been patted smooth by human hands; in fact, 
he could not tell how many bears had followed 
that trail by the tracks, for his part he thought 
about a thousand. 
“Ah! calabacero,” said Don Jose, “don’t yot; 
know that one bear will sometimes walk up anc: 
down the paunch track just for fun? They art 
devils. To-night, it is a sure shot on their 
coming again, as they 'evidently did not fine 
the old mare until too near daylight to finis! 
her, so to-night as the moon rises, we musj 
be within ear-shot of the carcass, and we won’’! 
give up the bear until the moon sets. ' She) 
most likely to come in the half lights.” 
After breakfast we saddled up our favorites 
and went out over the bear trail to make £ 
guess of how many bears, and of what size 
they were, also to select our road for the raic 
upon them, and take in the accidents of the 
ground in daylight. The bear sharps decider 
that there was an enormous she bear, with three! 
half-grown cubs, which would make it ampbj 
exciting for the eleven hunters. 
Those horses were fed all the grain tha 
was good for them that day, and were as wel 
cared for as any Kentucky thoroughbred eve: 
was the day before the race, for we knew then 
would be plenty of hard work for them some 
time between dark and daylight. 
By early dusk Tuesday night, every man', 
horse was carefully saddled and bridled, riata: 
coiled and hung on the pommels and the latigo: 
left so that one pull would tighten then 
sufficiently for the journey. Anxiously w< 
waited, loafing around the corridors with oc 
casional glances, at our horses, discussing tin 
prospects of the hunt from every standpoin 
and relating incidents and accidents of pre 
vious hunts engaged in by different individuals 
About 10 o’clock Don Jose put new life inti 
the circle by shouting out of the door of tin 
house, “A. las armas, muchachos, adelante!’ 
(To arms, boys, forward!) In less time than i 
takes to tell every man was in his saddle an< 
we were strung out on the trail by twos ami 
threes. A finer looking cavalcade could no 
have been picked out for perfect pose in th 
saddle, mounts and equipment for the prospec 
tive work. 
Don Jose, sitting his beautiful and gracefu 
tordillo (gray) chineno straight as an arrov 
in spite of his sixty odd years; Navarro on hi 
high-strung, merry sabino; Chato on E 
Mohino; El Cir, my brother, on his Arab 
shaped Garfia cream; I, on a Sanchez with fou 
white feet, and the others equally well mounter 
set off merrily at a fox trot up the wood roa> 
and along the easterly bank of the arroyc 
through the Potrero Chiquito and Potrero d 
las Aguages, through the magnificent .live oak‘ 
which then abounded there, and came out o: 
the mesa, just above the old Tejon trail leadinj 
by the Piedra Gordo, or Eagle Rock. Ther 
we stopped, and throwing our feet up over th 
horses' withers, tied our spur chains to preven 
their clinking against the stirrups. 
Don Jose rode slowly ahead,- listened intent! 
for a moment, then said in an undertone. “Th 
old woman has arrived, -sons.” El Burrer 
wanted to know how he knew. The old ma 
replied, “The dog that eats does not bark 
Don’t you hear the coyotes yelling? In othe: 
words, the bear is eating horse, the coyote 
want to eat horse, but are afraid of her, s* 
stand off and yell at her; if the bear was no 
there, the coyotes would be eating and coul 
not yell.” 
“Well,’ said the burrero, “that is easy to gues 
after you know how.” 
“Now,” said Don Jose, “as you see, the moo 
is just coming over the sierras, and in aboc 
