The morning news., 1894-07-28
TIE SIZE OF BEARS.
The Successful Sportsman's Story
Not Always True to the Scales.
From the Forest and Stream

From the Forest and Stream.
have hunted and trapped Tor years in
the Rocky Mountains and Coast ranges,
the home of the grizzly, just for the money
that / made by it, and in all my expe-
rience have never killed nor even seen a
bear that l thought would weigh half as
much as some | have read about, and
have never known any one who ever saw
a bear that tipped the scales at l 800
pounds. Nine out of every ten bears
that are reported as weighing all the way
from 1000 pounds up to 2 300 pounds were
killed many miles from pair of scales.
The largest bear ever killed, or, rather,
helped to kill, was when my partner and
| were hunting and trapping on the Yak
river, in Northwestern Montana, in the
winter of 1889. We had had very good
luck with beaver, marten and lynx and
other land fur. Along toward spring we
took pack of grub and blankets on our
backs, and went up a creek that empties
in the Yak. We intended to hunt in that
locality for bear; and we always take the
easiest way to hunt-we kill an elk. deer,
or any kind of game we run across for
bait, then wait for the bear to come. We
had lots of bait up that creek, and killed
some more on another creek. Then our
grub was about out, and we had to go
back and pack up enough to last US
through the hunting When we got through
packing our grub. we began to see
where there had been a bear taking the
bait. A warm Chinook. wind at that
time did the work, for we were killing
one now and them we had traps and
guns set for bear, also two good dos s
apiece, so we were kept bustling taking
care of the hides. / had not been up to
the furthest bait for several days; when
| had time to go, D. said that he would
a cache of traps he had made in the fall
when trapping for beaver. We had got
almost up to TIE bait when I saw a bear
track; it was a whale. told D. that
most likely the old boy was handy around
the bait, for the tracks were fresh.
When we came in sight of the bait, the
bear had either heard or smelt US, for we
saw that he had been eating on the bait.
We put the dogs on the track and tol-
lowed after them as fast as we could
travel, over wind-falls and through under
brush, with suowshoes. We have
shoeing way into the spring in
the mountains. We had not gone
more than half mile when
I heard one of the dogs howl. Then I
knew that the bear was our meat We
went down TO where the dogs were, and
there was bear that was the grandpa of
all the bear either of US had ever seen.
1t was a bald-face grizzly He was fight
ing the dogs. He would run after one,
when one of the others would bite him on
his heels. II was laughable to see him.
He did not know what sort of a jackpot
he was in. Finally, he thought 1t was
getting too warm for his rear end, so he
sat up on his launches That was the
opportunity we were waiting for We
both turned loose" with our 1890 Sharps,
and the bear tupbled all in heap. We
skinned him and found where one of the
bullets had broken his neck, and the
other mis- shoulder
had never seen such an animal before
for size | asked y. what it weuld weigh.
That was the first bear had ever wanted
to weigh. d. said be had no idea, but we
could try and pull him; we could Just
move him he was lying on snow that was
pretty solid. We had a stick through
his gambrels 50 we had a good pull at
him. Both of US were over six feet tall and
weighed over 200 pounds. so we we're not
very weak We talked about the weight
of the bear, aud we thought he would
probably weigh 500 pounds. His hide
when stretched measured 10 feet inches
from Tip Of nose TO the tail, and was
fest 9 inches wide. When we went down
in the spring we showed the hide around,
and old hunters said that 10 was the larg-
est bear hide they had ever seen.
We killed sixteen bears that spring. but
none OF tncm was as large, Dy Oue-lhtfd,
as the big Que. do rot believe that the
big one would weigh ~ the very most 900
pounds. and he was very fat ] think be
had not been out very long. as 10 was in
April when he was killed Now my no.
ti0n is that an these bears that weigh
from 800 pounds up have been kl!ed
around % campfr / would like 20 bear
from anyone who ever saw "a bear weighed
that tipped the scales at 500 POUNDS A
person who bad never seen bear run
n.ug wlli would Say 90 seeilg Els first