Jan. 12, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
5 1 
1 
CANADA LYNX IN THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 
From Madison Grant’s “Notes on Adirondack Mammals.” 
Reproduced by permission of the Forest, Fish aVid Game Commission. 
i 
my horse from turning tail to the bear and 
getting into all kinds of difficulty. Then I 
reached down and pulled my cinch straps as 
tight as possible, so he could not budge the 
saddle. Getting off, I took my silk sash, went 
on the opposite side of the tree and tied his 
two hind legs tight together, my horse pulling 
away from him in the opposite direction, keep¬ 
ing him from whirling on me. Now my bear 
1 was backed itp to the tree and tied. You saw 
the rest last night.” 
We selected a large post that stood under the 
i shade of three large live oaks that grew at the 
: corners of the triangle, about 250 feet north 
of the house on the wood road, and tied the 
' bear as before, giving her water and meat. 
1 Leaving her alone we planned to kill the day, 
rest, loaf and feast; the third succeeding day 
would be the grand function at El Pueblo, and 
meantime we must move Mrs. Oso six miles, 
provide a toro bravo for her to fight, also a 
1 suitable place for spectators. We decided, as 
the most fitting way of celebrating our prowess, 
upon a barbecue! 
El Cir gave the order for a fat calf of ten 
months to be killed. The lenero went down 
j to a spot designated and dug a circular hole 
I two feet deep and wide. Selecting water-worn 
cobbles, with which the arroyo abounded, he 
lined the'hole with them; taking several arms- 
ful of dry oak branches and breaking them 
1 to fit the cobble-lined hole, he quickly struck 
j a match and had the pile in full blaze. Soon 
it was only a mass of beautiful coals. I wish I 
could give you the picture oj this spot as it 
1 looked on that summer day. A great live oak 
! casting its shade a hundred feet around its 
gnarled trunk, overhanging a spring, cool and 
clear; its rim was surrounded by ferns, coarse 
tr t graceful, a belated mariposa lily stalk was 
here, and a lupin bloomed scantily. We scarcely 
i noticed it all so much then, but I recall it now, 
forty years later, perfectly. 
The boys arrived with the calf, butchering it 
in Spanish style as it lay dead on the rails that 
had been put under it. Cutting off the head 
and taking the liver and the feet from the 
cnees down, they turned them over,to the lenero, 
who soaked clean barley sacks in water and 
enveloped the meat in them, putting in a few 
cloves of garlic for seasoning. He scooped 
the coals and ashes out of the hole and put the 
wet sacks in on the red hot rocks, placing a 
layer of green sycamore leaves about two inches 
thick over all, then covering them with the 
freshly dug earth to the depth of a foot, pack¬ 
ing it hard with the spade. 
While the lenero was thus engaged, the other 
boys had been as busy as a lot of gophers. 
Some had made a rousing bed of beautiful clear 
red coals, the best broiling fuel in the world, 
others had gone to the house bringing back 
bread, salza, green peppers, salt and claret. 
Every man was his own cook, and every dish 
was a broil. Some used a long, slim oak or 
sycamore stick, others laid the juicy morsel 
directly on the coals,' each one selected his 
favorite bit, and what a menu to choose from! 
Each had its own particular flavor; salted, 
eaten piping hot from the stick with a spoon¬ 
ful of salza or bit of green pepper and washed 
down with a swallow of claret or spring water. 
Sitting on the roots of the tree, as large as a 
man’s leg, some forming the seat, some the 
back, of as restful an arm chair as one could 
wish, one had the whole range of the Lincoln 
Park Hills, and looking through a gap in the 
arroyo, the cupola of the town courthouse, the 
misty outlines of homes on the south, and 
through the gap the profile of the recumbent 
Indian or Washington, as the face seemed to 
resemble, in the Los Felis hills. To the north 
the beautiful sage-covered hills, fringed with the 
dark green live oaks and beyond in the distance 
the blue Sierre Madres; to the east the hills 
covered with oak surrounding the rodeo. 
Then the siesta; stretched under the closely 
woven boughs of the live oak. with the cool 
breeze plhying around our heads, the music of 
the water as it fell among and ran over the 
boulders down the bank of the arroyo to a 
garden below, and the enjoyment of the dreamy 
cigarritos, until soft sleep fell among us. Those 
days, those times! They will never more re¬ 
turn. 
By daylight we had loaded the bear on and 
added an extra new skin to the hide gondola, 
to better protect her from the rocks, and under 
the escort of eight men—five only being neces¬ 
sary—started on our journey down the sandy 
road of the Arroyo Seco to the pueblo, the 
other three going on ahead to secure suitable 
corrals, etc. The bear procession met a train 
of several two-yoke oxen drawing carretas, 
which the bueys with a snort scattered all over 
the arroyo, not paying any attention to the 
“Ho! parate, Chanate! vete Barcino, _carajo! 
A burro train also scattered off with its pack- 
saddles, rushing through the willows; in fact, 
Mrs. Oso seemed to inspire every animate thing 
with new life on sight, and no wonder, for she 
was about as ugly as a “kick on the shins,” with 
the question of whether it hurts or not added 
on to it. 
The crowd having all the seats and standing 
room, Mrs. Oso and Mr. Toro were brought 
in and introduced to one another, by making 
fast a log chain twenty feet long to the bull s 
foot, and the other end to Mrs. Oso s neck, 
this to prevent a scattering in case they did 
not face the music. . 
When all was ready, the vaqueros retired, 
letting both animals loose at the same time. 
For a moment they stood looking at each 
other.- The bull concluded first that he had 
her sized up, lowered his head and charged 
her. The bear half rose on her hind legs and 
swatted him on the shoulder, taking about four 
pounds of beefsteak off. but the bull in the sup¬ 
plemental rush knocked her over, and backed 
off, pawing the dirt as he went. The giizzly got 
up.' shook herself and rushed like lightning at 
the bull, grabbing him at the withers, but hardly 
had she taken hold when the bull,- throwing up 
his head with enormous force, ended her hind¬ 
quarters up almost over her head, and as her 
bod-y came down, with a quick side thrust he 
rammed his horn in behind her short ribs clear 
to the heart. 
The bear let go her hold and fell pver on her 
side, dving in less than a minute. The bull was 
all right, with the exception of the lost beef¬ 
steak "and the bite on his neck, and just as mad 
as ever, he pawed the dirt and bellowed for 
more bear. 
“Another surprise,” El Burrero said; who 
would ever think a bull could kill a bear in 
.three minutes?” 
The bear, though very thin from raising a 
large family, weighed 1,100 pounds; fat, would 
have easily weighed 1.500 pounds or more. I 
can’t remember what became of the cubs, but 
think they were sold to a man called Round 
House George, who kept a few animals and sort 
of pleasure garden, on a small scale in Los 
Angeles. Hancock AI. Johnston. 
