The St. Johns herald., 1889-08-29
CAME WORTH HUNTING.
The Destruction of the Grizzlies and the i
 Black Bears,

The Destruction of the Grizzlies and the
 Black Bears.
 In Western America there are two bears that claim the sportsman at- tention-the grizzly and the black. The former hunters hava endowed with many aliases, such as "silver- tip," ''brown," cinnamon, 'bald- face" and 'range'' bear These names do not mean any thing, for the grizzly, like the dog. is of many colors. These two varieties of bears can, among other things, be distinguished by the formation Of their claws. Those of the grizzly are longer on the fore than on the hind feet. The claws of the black bear are short, and are of the same length on all four feet. It is difficult to persuade the hunters of different sections that the ''silver-tip," ''cinna- mon," ''brown," ''bald-face" and ''range" bears are all from the same ancestry, and that the same animal is called by different names in different localities. But while hunters may vary in their nomenclature, they one and all agree that the full-grown g.izzly is the gamest animal in the world, and the one to be most dreaded.
 Never do these bears stand on their hind legs and pursue the hunter with terrible howls and rOars, as is the or thodox way of describing their con- fiicts with human beings in the ghastly literature of the country. When not hit in the brain or spine they put their head down, and with swinging gallop rush upon the hunter. They usually receive their death wound without demonstration, sinking down and dying mute. The majority of grizzlies shot by our famous Eastern sportsmen are those that have first been trapped. They are killed when in this crippled condition, after drag ging often for miles a large steel trap with a huge trailing log attached.
 The grizzly is found west of the Missouri river, and very rarely, if ever, east of it. They inhabit both the plains and mountains. A dozen years ago they could be seen almost anywhere in the mountain ranges, but since their destruction has been com- passed by batting and traps they have become shy, and difficult to approach near enough for 8 certain killing shot. Bears are the most wary animals of all the big game in America. They go singly, and usually see the hunter before he catches 8 glimpse of them. They then cunningly slip away, and are difficult to trail. At this time they are fairly abundant Tn the mountains of Montana, sure find being in Crazy Women's Mountain, north of the Northern Pacific railroad. There is also goodly number of bears distrib- uted over the mountains of Idaho and Wyoming, some in Southern Cali fornia, scattered in the Sierra Madres and on the junction waters of the. Santa Maria river in San Luis 8hispo County. They are also numerous in. the Rocky mountains and Sierra Ne vadas.
 The black bear has far wider range
  than tho grizzly, but in the West it is confined mostly to the mountains, and rarely comes out on the prairies. It is well distributed, however, and is es- pecially abundant in the timbcred country, moving about to where the mast and berries are most plentiful Black bears are very numerous in Northe n Montana. On the Pacific Coast they outnumber the grizzlies, where both species feed on the salmon. The destruction of the grizzlies has been much greater than that Of the black. Bears, though still abundant, are very difficult animals to hunt and kill in 6 sportsmanlike way. Franklin Satterthwaite, in Harper's Magazine.