The sun., 1899-09-24
BIG GAME TO BE PLENTIFUL
THE LARGE CROP OF NUTS WILL
BRING THE BEARS WITHIN REACH.
Easy to Find the Track of the Grizzly Close
to Mohave City" old John" Horton
Expects to Add to His Record of 2I2
Lears This Yenr-His Snfe Methnln.

Easy to Find the Track OF the Grizzly Clos
to Mohsvo City-"Old John" Horto
Expects to Add to His Record of FL
hears This Year-His Safe Methods
MoHAvE CITY, Ariz., Sept 13 The fall Gro
| of pinons, the only substitute for mast in thi
country, is going to be heavy. The mountain
pine bears every year, but its yield is large onl,
| every alternate year In this respect its habit l.
duplication OF the habit Of the pecan which Il
distinctly lowland tree. The large production
OF nuts means that game will be plentiful In tn,
| mountains this autumn until the continued snow
drives IL down into the valleys far below the line
where the pines grow Tho presence Of gam
means that bear will be thicker than for the past
year which means still further that late in the
winter about the middle OF January to be exact
stockmen will begin to lose cattle and sheep II
increasing quantities as a result Of the visits o
cougars, grizzlies and cinnamons On Bill vii
liams Fork, u stream which heads near Prescott
and runs into the Colorado River more than a hun
drcd miles south of this place year before last ON,
grizzly accounted for more than fifty cows, which
was at the rate Of COW for every three days of his
stay in that district lie did not come back last
winter as the pinon crop was bad and he went
probably TO district where the game was thick
but his temperance is looked for with the com.
ing Of his moving food supply
In this district, as In all other parts OF noun.
famous western America, the hand of every man
/" against the grizzly and he is shot whenever
professional hunter or sportsman comes across
him; but the supply Of the animal is by no means
exhausted. II Is no trick at all to take an exper-
fenced woodsman and find the broad track OF the
grizzly at any time in the fall, within twenty five
miles OF Mohave city Killing the animal how
ever, is not the same as finding his track. The
te
from the spot where his trail is struck Then
again he may have retired TO some mountain fast
ness wherein IL is impossible 10 reach him. There
are very few men indeed who care to pursue the
grizzly TO his stronghold. The ordinary local
expression, Il amt lost no grizzlies an | amt
lookin for none" expresses the general feeling
pretty accurately. The stockmcn are about the
only people interested class in the e1tcrm-
nation OF bears and they are usually too busy
TO hunt them in an organized fashion All COW
boys under orders to make fight whenever
they are armed with rifles and meet one of the
bears and TO their credit II is to be said that they
almost always obey. When every opponent is
taken into account. however. there is hardly
enough bear shooting to diminish apprcciably
the supply Of the animals
The objection TO tacking the grizzly, which is
part of the mental make up of nearly every
not 50 much from dread of the brute's size speed
and ferocity though all are great as from it's
phenomenal vitality. II takes such To-, Of shoot
ing, and through it all is so doggedly fixed in its
purpose TO do damage. that a man who does not
know Just where and when and what weapon TO
use is to be excused II he shirks the fray. Old
hunters are firm in the belief that grizzlies differ
materially in their structure and that what would
be fatal wound for one would be a flea bite TO
another Few men are anatomists Even II
one has been ranchman or miner for twenty years,
II Is not certain that he knows within foot of
where bears heart is Tho result is that when
he can't get away and has 10 shoot he shoots
bndly and rapidly at the biggest part OF the bear
which he can sec This explains the fact that
grizzly has been known TO run at top speed for
three miles and make good his escape with twenty
Winchester balls driven into him The most fatal
wound which can be inflicted upon bear is through
the head, Just between the eyes, or through the
ears A bullet 80 placed will penetrate the brain
and the animal will be dead in less than n min.
ute. bears brain Ia about as large as a beer
bottle. and II Is true that any man reasonably
expert with rifle can hit beer bottle set upright
at a distance of thirty yards nineteen times out
of twenty. The bottle however. is not gamished
with huge fangs and great curved claws and glow
ing red eyes and the temper of maniac More
over the boar, when charging. carries the head
very low so that any front shot is almost certain
to glance and he swings his head rapidly from
side TO side. with pendulum motion describing
an arc of nearly foot in length. Using rifle
on this sort Of target when a miss means serious
trouble is not what II has been represented TO be
In books about bear r-slayers
The hunters in this section still prefer the old
Sharps rife, which at one time came to be known
as the buffalo gun" from the fact that it was
carried by the hunters who went West with the
Union Pacific Railway and killed all OF the bisons
The rifle is Calibered at so In other words
the diameter Of its muzzle is Just half an inch
and II carries ball to ft. Its range is a mile
with considerable elevation, and its point blank
range is three hundred yards II is a single shot
weapon. II has no magazine, and when il is fired
II is necessary for the shooter To eject the exploded
shell by somewhat antquated mechanism and
insert another In battling with grizzly, how
ever, man who knows the gun ought to be able
10 get in three shots before the animal can cover
$50 yards, and that ought to be enough TO settle
him. il the weapon Is held with reasonable ac-
'uracy In shocking capacity tho equal Of this
rifle has never been discovered among small arms
Some of Gov. Roosevelt's Rough Riders went
rom this district and they brought back with
hem rifle or two of the present army pattern
etained from the government by some means
,est known To themselves. They state their
mention TO use them on bears this winter but
hose who know the grizzly believe that the out.
ome Of the experiment will be disastrous To the
nan behind the gun. The bear II hit twenty
n thirty times with krag -Jorgenscn bullets,
will go of somewhere and die Of course but not
Until he has torn up an or two Of ground and
nything that may happen 10 be on it, As a
demonstration, however, Of what the army rife