The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-10
FACTS ABOUT GRIZZLIES.
a VETERAN HUNTER OF CALIFOR-
MA ENPLODEs SOME PALACES.


Their skins-Some Personal Expe-
rienccs With Them.
From the ST. Louis Globe-Democrat.
No less an authority than the Duke OF
Sutherland. who has hunted Wild beasts
in every country. under every cline, and
is noted as one OF the best amateur rifle
shots I'm England. said some ten years ago
that Henry Ellison. the hunter OF the coast
range Of the mountains In California, was
the best all-rOund sportsman among the
Glib game he had ever seen. When his lord
ship and party Of London young men came
TO California for a six weeks hunt In the
mountains they gave themselves entirely
over to Henry Ellison, and he Is said TO
have provided livelier and more appetiz-
ing sport than the Duke and his friends
had just come from in India. on their tour
round the world. The appreciation in which
the old California hunter was held by the
Englishmen is shown by the fact that al
most as soon as they reached home they
sent as a gift to Ellison che finest rifle
and double-barreled shotgun to be had
in London. In the two months hunt the
old hunter led the party where they got
three grizzly bears. five black bears. two
score or more Of wild cats, two or three
mountain lions, a score of deer, some elk
and no end of gray squirrels and feathered
game.
Henry Ellison is now IS years old. He is
still a hunter and trapper, and he SAYS he
means to die in his lonely mountain cabin,
away up in the San Bcrnardino range, or
on the trail. He Is a typical hunter, Ev-
eryone in Southern California knows about
him. while among sport smen he has a
IN a.
was in the United States army In the last
war. and when he came out he tried boat
ing on the Mississippi from St. Louis to
Nicksburg, but gave II up. came across the
plains and ,got so In love with the wild,
free life IN the canyons and mountains
that nothing has ever been an induce
ment for him TO give IL up. The late Mayor
Garter II. Harrison Of Chicago, when he
spent the winter of 1912 in Southern Cal
ifornia, went hunting with Ellison several
times among the tail timber in the San
Gabriel mountains, and Henry Ellison fig
ures prominently in the late mayors book
of his globe-trotting experiences. The griz-
zled Old fellow has had enough thrilling
experience with grizzly and black bears,
mountain lions and wild cats to I'LL a big
book His face and neck bear the marks
Of decorations from bears claws he walks
lame from the effect of grizzly's jaws
on the ankles, and his left shoulder II
quite stiff where he had an encounter with
a mountain lion there summers ago.
Henry Ellison came to Los Angeles the
other day for the first time In three years,
although he can see the loftiest buildings
in the city almost any day from his cabin
among the mountains, some nifty miles
away
Il don't know as l have any news to
tell you this trip, boys" said he TO a
party of hunters WHO soon gathered quick
ly I'm the gun and ammunition shop,
where the veteran bear hunter was. "On,
yes come to think, j got a little book OF
bear stories last month, and I've been
a-reading that book over and over. 1t was
got up by an editor named Halstead. Some
one sent it to me from the east. Wen,
now, do you know, there's heap of nom
sense in that book, although II seems
! to me to have been written as sound
sense For instance 1t has two or three
| stories about grizzlies eating up men. I'll
bet my rife no grizzly over ate a man,
no matter how awful hungry he was.
| Then, the book told about men stabbins
! grizzly bears to the heart with common
| bowie knives. / don't believe that mas
| ever been done for knife would have
| to have blade foot long to enter a
| grizzly's heart, and a man would have
/ hardly one chance In ten thousand 10
| strike the heart while fighting for life
| with a big bear. Then II tells about a
| family Of grizzly bears rolling around In
| caves and having all kinds of fun all by
| themselves. That is all wrong, too, be-
| cause an old male grizzly is the meanes.
| and sourest sort of fellow, and never
| plays with anything much less his cubs.
| He seems to hate his whole family Black
| bears may do that, but never grizzlies.
But what has made my partner and me
| laugh most in that book Of bear stories is
| about several bear carcasseS that have
| weighed 100 and 1900 pounds. Now, I've
hunted from British Columbia to Arizona
! and have sat about a campfire with hum
| tiers of all kinds. and I've never known or
| heard reliably of any bears that went over
| 900 pounds. l killed one down in San
| Diego mountains five years ago that weigh
] ad I.aq at uyin orr i1a
! beasts went into their long sleep, my part
ner and / got two grizzlies up In the Kern
county range and each went over 700
pounds The ranchmen said they were the
| largest they ever saw. My idea is that all
! these bears that weigh from 1900 pounds
/ up have been killed around campfire, and
/ always by tenrderfeet too / would Hike to
hear from anyone who ever saw q bear
| weighed that tipped the scales at 1900
| pounds A person who had never seen a
| bear running Wild would say on seeing his
| first that 1t was the biggest thing ever
/ wrapped up in hide The first bear / ever
| saw looked as big as mountain but after
| I had killed him he shrunk down to small
black one. could pack him all around he
was so small.
THE very largest looking grizzly l ever
! got my partner and killed when we were
| hunting and trapping on Upper Columbia
| river, up in oregon, six years ago We
went up a small creek that empties in the
| Columbia purposely for a grizzly bear, and
]
| zone morning we went TO the traps, sew
4 eral miles up the creek. We had not gone
! more than half a. mile when / saw a. bear
/ track in the mud along the bank OF the
creek. 1t was a tremendous track. told
my partner 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 gone. but the bait showed
1 signs of having been eaten.
1--WE put the dogs on the track and then
/ followed after them as fast as we could
! travel, through underbrush and across
/ swampy spots. We had not gone more
| than half a mile when heard one of the
| dogs howl. Then l knew the bear was
| our meat. We went down to where the
| dogs were, and there was a baid-faced
| grizzly that was the grandpa Of all the
| bears either Of us had ever seen. 1t was
| fighting the dogs, running first at one
! then at the other Finally, after a deal
| of worrying from the dogs, 1t sat up on
/ its launches. That was the opportunity
we were waiting for. We both turned
loose with our Winchesters and the bear
| tumbled all in a heap. We skinned IT
| and found where one of the bullets had
broken it's neck and the other his Shout
/ der.
IT had never seen such an animal be-
fore for size l asked my partner what
! ii would weigh. That was the first bear
l had ever wanted to weigh. He said he