The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-05
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9&

got home with what looked like the car cass of q coyote when we came along. Well, the way those old bears pulled that carcass to pieces and divided 1t among the cubs was mighty interest," ing. We could see that the parents were all-tlred hungry themselves, and that they looked with longing eyes as their boys and girls chewed the meat and bones down, but they never seemed to want bit while the children were hungry, If you could have seen how the old he bear sat on his hind legs and watched the meat disappear while he could only get a sniff of the feast it would have taught you the greatest les son of your life In unselhshness. When the cubs were through eating the fath- CT and mother bear chewed Q little about the bare bones and lapped up some blood, but that was all they got. Then the fun began, and you never saw better show in your life in any thea ter. The cubs and their dad rolled and tumbled about the ground; they played leapfrog over one another, they pulled one another about by the tail, and the cubs would all together jump on their father and pull and haul him around until he must have been sore. Once in while they would vex him, and part ner and I nearly hollered out loud to see how he would baste them with a fore paw. Then the she bear joined in the fun, and the whole family pitched on the old man just as you see boys fool with their dad. The parent bears n6 a saA pf ahpi1t ha y1nn mi
 ia brush and over the boulders, while the cubs would follow along as best they could. I'll swear those bears had such a good time that I know I heard them laugh themselves. We'll, this kept up for two hours Then the old man Bruin went off to hunt for his food, and, you may believe 1t or not, partner and I had several chances to shoot that whole family, but I'll be alarmed if there's money enough in bear pelts to get us to fire into such fine lot of folks as them. Why, 1t would be just like murder"
 The acuteness (sagacity some obser vers call it) of black bear is shown in hundreds of different ways. All hunt CTS have had experiences in which they have been led many miles from camp, across mountains, over wide areas of boulders and through rocky canons, by some smart old bear that seemed to have human mind In teasing the hun ter along, and at the same time adroitly keeping out of range of the rife when there was an opportunity for the pur suer to shoot. The bear that knows 1t is hunted and sees chance to escape will dot his every time. It will climb hastily into the most inaccessible spots to a man, and when 1t has surveyed the field from behind a titanic boulder or in a dense chaparral, where the hunter cannot shoot, 1t will decide upon a course of escape. Then 1t goes on ahead If 1t Is a she bear and her cubs are along she will drive the little fellows on ahead few feet and defend them in the rear. When the old bear knows there Is chance for a bullet from the hunters gun to come that way it will hasten as fast as possible, not stop ping to rest until some protection Is af forded from bullets by rocks or timber. Many she bears in their anxiety to save their cubs have been seen to pick them up in their fore paws andt rudge clumsily along. The sagaoity of black bears Is very often shown in their manner of seeking food. A ranchman in the foothills of the San Bernardfno Mountains a few years ago found that little pig disappeared about every week from his pigpens. The prints of bears paws told what was carrying away the little p6rkers, but the pen was surrounded by paling so strong and high that the ranchman could not imagine how any beast ever got in there. An all-night watch showed him that a black bear came that way, climbed live oak tree that grew near, and walking out on a branch that grewov CT the pigpen, dropped to the ground, snatched terrified pig. and making for the gate that could be opened from the inside only. made off to the family den, miles away up in the canon. The discrimination of bear is constantly shown by it's wariness of traps and decoys. Some bears have had traps fixed for them hundreds of times, but have sagaciously passed them by A bear hunter has to exer- else allh is ingenuity to devise schemes for catching black bear of any expe- rience. A mans hat lying near a con- cealed trap may be warning to Bruin, and hunters say they have known in- stances where bears have smelled mans presence even half mile away. New York Sun.