The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-18
The ferocitY Of the Bear.

saken Bad Lands predisposes them TO
this ultra foreclosures of disposition,
and il is indeed quite enough to make
one sad to think OF spending a lifetime
among such weird surroundings. II is
an admitted fact tina all creatures par
take of the character of their environ
ment-just as the trout takes on the
color of the sand or shade of the stream
which he inhabits. l imagine that in
this fact lies the explanation OF the
cranky and cross-grained temper Il
these bears.
As / have said, IL was in the winter
time that / was hunting. To be more
exact. IL was on the 23d day of Dec nm
Der. and il was half-past 2 o'clock in
the afternoon. as l very well remem-
Der. for L had Just looked at my watch.
thinking IL was nearly time for me TO
be turning back toward the ranch
house where i was stopping. l was not
really hunting bears at all, for every
hunter knows that at this time Of the
year these animals have all gone into
Information. In order to gain relief
from the landscape these bears retire
to winter quarters much earlier than is
usually the case in the mountains, even
az the high and colder upper ranges
where the snow comes in October or
November at latest. ! had every right
to suppose hat every pear in that sec
ton of the country had been safely
rolled up asleep for more than three
months / was therefore i'll prepared
and not a little startled, as i must ad-
nit, at what actually transpired.
l was walking along the edge of a
little knife-like ridge which wound
around between two deep ravines, or
c~oulees. and l did not want to get 10 vn
into either of these steep little gullies,
for | knew it would be difficult to get
- -AH
] easy IL is to get turned i'm
that wild country, and l did not wish
to be too far from camp when evening
came, as / am subject TO frequent at
tacks Of a rheumatic ailment which ere
much aggravated by night air, especial
ly by the night air of a country where
/ am lost. Naturally, also. my position
high upon this ridge gave me better
command of the surrounding scene and
I felt pretty sure | wou yet be able
to get my deer, for | had seen some
signs and had noted one buck at the
edge of a cottonwood thicket some hun
dreds Of yards ahead.
l was working my way along this
hogback with my Y intently fixed
upon the place where 1 had last seen
the deer. and was not paying any at
tention to my immediate surroundings,
when I was intensely startled by the
apparition of a great gray monster
which arose almost at my feet from out
the scanty shelter Of a little transverse
coulee which intersected the ridge along
which / was travelling. This bear. for II
was nothing else but a bald-faced
grizzly, and a very large one q shall not
say how large. for l had no means Of
measuring or weighing IL, and | am no
hand to guess at facts). rose before me
at a distance of less than 20 yards, and
ave a Wool, wool such as any OK
perienced bear hunter knows very well
is the expression of the grizzly who is
surprised and not altogether pleased
with the intrusion.
There was no apparent mean of es-
| cape, and ludicrous as IL may appear.
there flashed over my mind the Thought
of the oregon man who was once placed
eaten by the bear. Car IL be-" Thought
miserable and inglorious fashion, i
must confess IL seemed not unlikely, Cor
a larger. a leaner or more generally
cavernous-looking e / never have
seen in all my life.
/ was carrying at the time a first-rate
rifle. AS the bear rose before me. bal
ancing himself uneasily on the narrow
ledge which CAV footing to us both, l
looked for one in his little
piggish eyes. l thought how soiled and
unlaundered would be my fate IL he had
his way and accomplished his evid mt
purpose. At that moment. for some
unaccountable cause. all t~repidation left
me, and 1 was as steady as l am as