Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-03-03
CONTINUED from PAGE ~

HODOuy SHALL SnOOG OF POISON CnaC grizzly
| Of mine. He walks like an old salt, and
he's as big as horse! l amt too poor
To let him have fivc-dollar Spanish steer
whenever he wants it,"
| Under these circumstances the Valpey
grizzly became famous and throYe for
| several months. But one morning the
| old captain was up on "NIaintop Knob
with his spy-glass. He saw his drove
Of cattle was in the wooded pasture be-
low, huddled up in bend of the creek.
! Before them, marching back and forth,
occasionally rearing up and growing,
| was the great grizzly. He was selecting
| his dinner, much to the amusement of
the captain. Suddenly tho bear charged
into the band and struck down with one
| blow the only blooded steer the captain
owned. The rest of the cattle escaped
with wild terror. The grizzly made his
meal and went off. The captain swore
awhile, then he got his strychnine
bottle, and, late in the afternoon,
! cautiously descended the slope to where
the body of his 500 steer lay with a
broken neck. He poured tire strychnine
over the carcass, saying wrathfully:
Wasn't Spanish beef good enough Tor
you, ye old native Californian2' So he
poisoned his bear, after all.
There was a family of pioneers who
lived in the hills of Alameda County,
not far from Valpey's. The elder,
Zachariah Cheney, took his son Joe and
young man named Allen out to kill
grizzly. They all knew very we'll where
to find him, in wild and broken canyon,
or about the rocks at it's head, where
oak trees grew. They had come across
his tracks many times, and had seen
him grubbing CANVASS roots on the hill
side when they were hunting up cattle.
So they thought very little of the
danger. Each of them had gun and q
revolver. Suddenly they met the bear
at the head of the wooded gulch, who,
seeing their warlike preparations, i'm
mediately charged them and freed al
three in less than a minute. There was
SO little time for choice of a tree that
the elder Cheney and young Allen got
into scrub-oaks hardly larger than re
spectacle ounce trees. In less time
than it takes to tell it tho bear had
Cheney on the ground, scalped him with
one blow, crushed his arm and shoulder.
blade with another, and left him.
The bear instantly turned his atten.
ton to young Allen, seized him by the
bootleg, and jerked him from the tree
so violently that the poor fellow rolled
thirty feet down the gulch and under
some willows, where he lay in silence
Tho third man was beyond reach, so the
grizzly, master Of the circumstance
rose to his full height, gave roar OF
triumph, and walked .leisurely home
Not single shot was fired by any of the
three men! Yet let no one too hastily
shoot out the cOntemptuous lip, for nine
ty-nine men out of a hundred might
have done as badly. The rush of the large
grizzly from his chapparal shelter is a
terrible thing to face. | diStrust most OF
the current stories about successful
hand-to-hand encounters with full.
grown grizzlies. There is an oak tree
in Shasta County under which minor
who had fired upon n grizzly was killed
by one blow from the enraged animal,
and when his companions killed the
bear it was found that the mans bullet
had passed entirely through the ANIMAL
body.
If it were not for poison placed for
him in his haunts tho great master of
the California forests would still walk
''alone as a rhinoceros" in almost every
wild canyon of toast Range and Sierra.
Men learn to give him tho track when
ever they can, and if they go on the
war-path 1T Is with profound respect for
their antagonists strength and courage.
| once met five o. six San Luis Obispo
farmers who had shot huge grizzly.
They took their guns and went down
into tho gulch where the bear lived.
They found him where he was compelled
tocross the ravine to get to them, and SO
they were able to put over twenty bull
lets into him before he died at their
feet. They had just skinned him and
spread the great hide on the rocks when
] rode up. l asked them how they felt
about it, and the leader said: 1--WE none
OF us want to tackle another, II he had