St. Tammany farmer., 1888-03-10

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 10 exc ont . subsistence near the
perpetual snow line. An oil and ex-
perienced hunter has said that ''any
mans fool to go 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 nountain 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. and the Rocky Mountain gray
back. The true gray is seldom. if ever.
seen now as high Is the forty-fifth
parallel. and ~ far east ~ 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 mongrel of the
brown and grizzly, partaking strongly
of the nature of the two. particularly
IF the latter. In fact. I think l am
justified in asserting that all the men,
bers of he-species intermarry, and
that the silver tip is the king Of the
family. This big fellow. springing
from the grizzly and the brown. COM
bines all the ferocity and tough strength
of the former with the agility and stub
bcrnness Of the latter. each distinctive
trait being more prominent in him. and
possessed to n greater degree than by
the very ANIMALS from which he b0r-
rows them. The silver tip is unqucs-
tionably the ruler of the family. by
reason Of his great size and belliSerent
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, but 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 Cam
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 a dirty. yellowish-brown
color. which, at distance and in a
snow-covered country, might readily
be mistaken for white bears whose coat
of fur badly needed bath. In one
plac.. after coming upon a so-called |
whit bear. the journal describes him
as possessing small black eyes (almost |
like jet beads). hide of bright yellow
ish brown. the front of the fore-leps
near the feet being quite black. and |
the animal itself of a ferocious and
warlike nature. This description Of
the white bear of lSO4-5 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
thence 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
high attitudes. from which even hunger
pressure seldom drives them. Grizzlies
are generally credited with highly-culti-
rated appetites for carnivorous food.
Campfire stories excitedly tell Of the
diet these monsters habi.
.ually thrive upon, but were all the
yarns aired around the
,heerful blaze carefully sifted down
or facts l am afraid that fully ninety
,er cent of the grizzly stories would
urn out to be fiction. do not think
grizzly is carnivorops from choica