5° 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 12, 1907. 
BAY -LINX IN THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 
From Madison Grant’s “Notes on Adirondack Mammals.’’ 
Reproduced by permission of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission. 
of tissue paper under him at any stage of it. 
Chato, who had been trying to learn English 
all winter before, became so excited and en¬ 
thusiastic that he vented all his vocabulary in 
one long sentence, and though not to the point, 
was more appropriate than he knew, “Bully, 
Coche, I’ll keel you now; I’ll wheep you! I’ll let 
you know to-morrow! Oh, by -!” he 
screamed. 
El Cir said, “I thought you couldn’t ride 
broncos, George?” 
“Well, I’d like to see the color of tne horse 
that could dump me down among them bears, 
ride or no ride; I’d fly if I had to.” 
This put every one into a hilariously good 
humor. El Gir caught the cub with his riata 
as he was flung off by the crazed bucking Bayo 
Coyote, and Ybarra and Navarro, who had 
gotten back by this time, tied the others. The 
fight had lasted about an hour and a half, and 
we had bagged four grizzly bears. “But,” 
asked the burrero, “what kind of an outfit is 
going to load and haul this menagerie to the 
house and town, I want to know?” 
“Well,” said Don Jose, “it’s pretty near day¬ 
light. Let’s go back and get some good hot 
breakfast and fresh horses, and we will show 
you how easy the thing is when you have the 
sabe.” 
So we went home, and after a delightfully hot 
breakfast, selected fresh horses, this time with 
reference to strength and education among mad 
bulls and steers. We took with us also a large 
beef’s hide. 
When we got back we found one cub dead; 
Don Jose said from anger. I thought from be¬ 
ing tied too tightly; otherwise everything was 
as we left it, so we went to visit the old bear, 
to see if her temper had been improved; but we 
found her still in hysterics; she had dug holes 
all around the tree until it was almost uprooted, 
and all we could see was a part of her hind legs 
tied around the tree. 
“Now,” said El Burrero, “what figure does 
that beef’s hide cut? Are you going to feed 
it to her?” 
“You’ll see,” replied Don Jose. Measuring 
more or less the length between Mrs. Oso’s 
front and hind legs when stretched at full length 
and width between, he made like measurements- 
on the beef’s hide and cut holes about an inch 
and a half in diameter at each point; the fore¬ 
legs of the bear were then pulled taut with 
riatas wrapped with sheep skin, wool side in 
and the strongest and thickest riatas in the 
outfit wrapped and half-hitched around each 
leg. the hind legs being treated the same. 
The bear was pulled out from the tree by the 
fore feet; the hide was stretched in front of her 
and the rumps of the hide slipped under the 
fore feet; the ends of the riatas were passed 
through the holes made about the forearms of 
the steer’s hide and she was dragged up on the 
hide until the riata drawing through the holes 
pinned her feet close to the hide. The riatas 
on her hind feet were passed through the holes 
made in the gaskins of the hide and tightened, 
fastening the hind feet to the hide. She now 
presented the appearance of being pinned to a 
card like a bug for a specimen. 
The gringos looked on open-mouthed and 
guessing from time to time. “Well, I thought 
• I knew it all before, but I didn’t.” 
“Sure,” was the burrero’s comment. 
By this time a fifth riata was attached to the 
head of the beef’s hide. Three vaqueros now** 
took the forward riatas, and two, the ones at¬ 
tached to the hind feet, taking a turn on their 
pommels and pulling all together, Mrs. Oso 
slid over the grass on her rawhide sled as slick 
as a toboggan; the rear vaqueros keeping just 
enough tension to hold the bear flat on her 
stomach. The gfingos took off their hats and 
yelled with delight. We left the five men haul¬ 
ing Mrs. Oso back to the ranch house, and 
turned our attention to the two remaining cubs. 
First, their mouths were tied with bale rope 
and the whole body enveloped in a horse blanket 
(to prevent fright of horses), leaving a breath¬ 
ing hole at the head. Four men put each on 
a horse, one man led the horse, and one walked 
on one side holding on to the blanket to steady 
the cub. In this way they were taken to the 
house very comfortably. 
At night, seated in the corridor in the cool 
breezes coming up the arroyo from the ocean, 
El _ Burrero said, “Don Jose, they told me you 
caught and tied seven bears alone at Chino, and 
that such a thing was not uncommon among 
the Californians, even Romulo, an eighteen- 
year-son of Don Andres Pico, doing the trick 
alone; but I put them down as Californy lies, 
and didn’t take the trouble to ask you how it 
was done; but since l have seen four bears 
tied up like shoats by you fellows, I am going 
to ask you to tell me how one man surrounds 
a bear all alone. If you tell it straight, I will 
believe it; but I think it will stump you before 
you get him backed up to a tree.” 
“Diablo, viejo! a vaquerito del-pais can do^ 
the work for me, because I frequently send 
one to kill and butcher a steer alone, and 
Carrai! if he can’t do one, he can’t do the other, 
because it is almost equally dangerous and 
takes about the same nerve. Anyhow, a man 
who is a coward has no business being a 
vaquero, which requires plenty of courage 
whether you are breaking a colt or throwing a 
cape at a bull or gathering up a riata at full 
speed. 
“Well, I will tell you of my last bear which 
I was not hunting, as I had lost none that day 
and was only looking over the different bunches 
of cattle, to judge their condition. In going 
through some thick willows that grow in the big 
swamp at Chino, I felt my horse stagger and 
heard such a slap that I knew instantly that a 
bear had intended to slap my face as a surprise, 
but had missed me and struck my horse on 
the rump, so instantly I put spurs and went 
flying out of the willows to the open grass be¬ 
yond, meantime trailing my riata which had 
hung loosely coiled on the horn—our custom 
when on the range—and prepared my lasso. 
“The bear was full charge behind me, and 
with his mouth wide open. I took in the situa¬ 
tion and slowed down, letting him come within 
about ten feet, circling until I was pretty close 
to a lone, curly willow, slid the horse on his 
haunches a little to one side, and as the bear 
came up, caught him by one hind leg; quick 
as thought I tightened the riata, running around 
the tree and drawing Mr. Oso close up to it. 
He had fallen and rolling over, was biting at 
the rope on his leg. I rode around the tree 
four or five times encircling it tight with the 
riata and tied the end to an outside limb. 
Mr. Oso never thought to follow me at each 
turn, so I tied the hind foot to the tree. I then 
drew near to him, he trying to get at me all the 
time, and taking down my macate threw it 
around his neck; taking a few turns on my 
pommel brought the end of the rope along the 
opposite side of the horse’s neck from that 
which was fast to the bear and tied it to the 
rope between the bear and the horse, to prevent 
