The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-02-09
GIGANTIC BEARS.
The Grizzly and the Silver Tip,
the Black, the Brown, Etc.
p7enty OF Them in the Northwestern Ter
ritOrfes-A Fierce Encounter Where
Man and Bear Roth Went
Over the Trecipice.


Over the Precipice.
The big grizzly bears found all
through the canons of the Rocky
Mountains and spurs Of the great range
seldom descends from lofty attitudes,
where they manage year in and year
out TO exc out subsistence near the
perpetual snow line. An old and eX-
pericnced hunter has said that "any
mans a fool to 90 in arter bear alone. !"
The bruins Of the East and the bruins
of the West are almost totally different
animals. The "Ursa Majors of this
latitude are monstrous in size, endowed
with ugly dispositions and prodigious
strength, and rs for grit, they dispute
and very often successfully, too-the
sovereignty of the mountains and
forests with the king of American
beasts, the mountain lion. Hunters
disagree upon the point OF how many
different species Of the bear tribe we
have in the Northwest. There are at
least three distinct types Of the family
In Montana, namely, the grizzly,
brown and black bear. Beside these,
there are also gray bears, cinnamon
bears, ard the Rocky Mountain gray
bacn. The true gray is seldom, if ever,
seen now as high as the forty-ffth
parallel, and as far east us the main
divide; the cinnamon is simply q cross
between the brown and black bears,
and the mighty silver tip is neither
more or less than Il mongrel of the
brown and grizzly, partaking strongly
of the nature of the two, particularly
of the latter. IN fact. | think | am
justified in asserting that all the men,
beers of the species intermarry, and
that the silver tip is the king of the
family. This big fellow, springing
from the grizzly and the brown, COM
bincs all the fcrocity and tough strength
of the former with the agility and stub
bornness OF the latter, each distinctive
trait being more prominent in him, and
possessed to greater degree than by
1he very ANIMALS from which he bor-
rows them. The silver tip is unques-
1ionably the ruler Of the family, by
reason of his great size and belligerent
disposition. Lewis and Clarke, in their
narrative of their journey through this
region nearly one hundred years ago,
speak of meeting not only brown and
BLACK bears. bat also numerous white
bears, who made it perilous travelling
at times for various members of that
bold pioneer party. There are no
white bears in Montana. Dakota, Idaho,
or the bordering possessions of the Can
adian Northwest. Probably the abb
nos referred to were cinnamon bears,
who, early in the spring after coming
out Of winters sleep, take upon
themselves dirty, yellowish-brown
color, which, at a distance and in a
snow-covered country, might readily
be mistaken for white bears whose coat
of fur badly needed bath. In one
place, after coming upon a so-called
white bear, the journal describes him
as possessing small black eyes (almost
like jet beads), a hide of bright yellow
Ssh brown, the front of the fore-legs
near the feet being quite black, and
the animal itself of a ferocious and
warlike nature. This description of
the white bear of 1919 tallies with
the cinnamon bear of 1887, which
makes him about the same ugly Gus
toner that he was hundred years
ago. There are few black bears in
this immediate vicinity, most of them
inhabiting the western slope of the
Rocky Mountains and the forests that
Ehence continue to the Pacific Ocean.
The woods of Oregon and Washing
ton are overrun with black bears.
The largest black fellow l ever saw in
my life was in the woods of Washing
ton Territory, near Mount Rainier.
The black bears of Montana, as well as
the cinnamon, as a rule inhabit low
places, such as creek and river bottoms,
willow marshes, and timbered spots,
but grizzlies and silver tips stick to
s&AAAAtA'AN,s @AOAil " MIN Gll iIu8GI
pressure seldom drives them. Grizzlies
are generally credited with highly-culti-
waited appetites for carnivorous food.
Campfire stories eXcitedly tell of the
blcodthirsty diet these monsters habi-
4ually thrive upon, but were all the
blood-aurdling yarns saired around the
cheerful blaze carefully sifted down
for facts / am afraid that fully ninety
per cent. of the grizzly stories would
turn out to be fiction. do not think
a grizzly is carnivorous from choice.
He seldom descends from his mountain
home to the creeks and rivers in search
of wild phms and chokeberries Othe
favorite diet of brown, cinnamon. and
black bears). but prefers to remain
saloft and feast upon the stores laid up
for winter use by his industrious
neighbors. the gophers and mountain
squirrels. Pine nuts are plentiful high
up. and then the grubs and worms
Gound beneath old stones and moss