Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-10-19
From Colton's "Two Years IN California"
THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

THE GRIZZLY BEAR 3.
The grizzly bear is the most formidable
and ferocious animal in California and
yet, with all this feroci,y of disposition,
rarely attacks man unless surprised or mo.
Tested. The fellow never lies in wait for his
victim. II the hunter invades his retreat or
disputes his path he will fight, but otherwise
contents himself with the immunity which
he finds in the wildness of his home and the
savage grandeur of his nature. 1t is never
safe 10 attack him with one rifle }; for il you
fail 10 hit him in a vital part, he is on you in
the twinkling of an eye. Your only possi-
bllty OF escape is up a near tree, too slender
for his giant grasp and then there is some-
thing extremely awkward in being on the
top of tree with such a savage monster at
its root. How long he will remain there you
cannot tell it may be week. Your antag-
onist is too shrewd TO hand you up your rife,
or let you come down TO get it. You are his
prisoner more safely lodged than in dun
geoa, and he will set you at liberty when ii
suits him. He sleeps not himself at his pos,
day and night his great flashing eyes are fas-
tened upon you. The Tyre of Orpheus may
have lulled 10 sleep the sentinel of Hades,
but its magic tones have never charmed to
slumber the sentinel of the California forest.
The full grown California bear measures
from eight 10 ten feet in length, and four or
five in girh. His strength is Tremendous
his embrace death-Had the priest of Apollo
fallen into his folds, he would have perished
without any of those protracted agonies which
the sympathetic muse has walled round the
world. Nature has thrown over him coat
of mail, soft indeed, but impervious to the
storm and the arrow of the Indian. The fur,
which is of dark brown color, is nearly a
span long, and when the animal is enraged
each particular hair stands on end. His food
in the Summer is chiefly berries, but he will
now and then, on some of his feast days,
slaughter bullock. In Winter he lives on
acorns, which abound in these forests He
is an excellent climber, and will ascend a
large oak with the rapdity of tar mp the
shrouds of his ship. In procuring his acorns,
when on the tree, he does not manifest his
usual cunning. Instead of threshing them
down like the Indian, he selects well-slock-
ed limb, throws himself upon its extremity,
and there hangs swinging and jerking till the
limb gives way, and down they come,
branch, acorns and bear together. On these
acorns he becomes extremely fat, yielding
ten or fifteen gallons of oil, which is said to
be sufficiently pungent and nutritive as q
tonic to tu(t statues marble head
The she bear has one popularity that mus
puzzle even the philosophical inquirer A,
soon as she discovers herself with young, sh.
ceases TO roam the forest, and modestly re
tires from the presence of others, 10 some Sc
, cluded grotto. There she remains, while he
male companion, with a consideration tha
does honor to his sex, brings her food Sh
+ reappears at length with her twin cubs, an
! wo to the luckless wight who should attemI
to inlure or modest them. They are guarde
e by an affection and feIocity with which
e would be madness to trhe. For them sh
e hunts the berries and disoGges the acorn.
e Her maternal care is beautiful trait in he
r savage nature, and
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