The midland journal., 1899-04-21
ROCKY MOUNTAIN BEARS.
A Hunter Says 1t Is Hard Work Now
adays to Bring Bruin
to Bay.

bSdIS SO llllO NlnlSI Wucu
the first heavy SHOWS and cold weather
begin, which is usually in November in
the Rockies. In the old days they
would den up right in open country. A
bears winter den is nearly always on
north hillside, where the snow falls
deepest, and if possible they choose a
place where drift will form. Some
times bear will den up in natural
cave or crevice, but more often will
dig himself a hole ten or twelve feet
deep. Nowadays this den is almost al
ways in the roughest country he can
find, and is generally pretty well up in
the mountains in heavy spruce timber.
A bear may make his den early in the
season, but until cold weather drives
him in he roams around lot. For
nearly a month before denning bears
eat very little, or not at all, and before
they go in for good the stomach and in
! testines are frequently clean and emp
| ty. The stomach is drawn up into
solid lump like chickens gizzard. and
the bear is IA solid mass Of fat, inside
and out. Along in February or March,
when bruin comes out again, he is still
hog fat, and he keeps this fat until the
snow is pretty well gone. When be first
comes out be does not travel much, but
as the weather warns up he soon runs
off all his fat, though have seen very
fet bears as late as the middle of May,
after the trees were green. AS vegeta-
, tion starts, bears live almost altogether
on grass, roots, etc., though OF course,
they will often eat meat. Still, have
had bats right among the bears, with
bears passing within so feet of the bats
every night, and it was the middle of
June before one of them touched bait,
and then they were at the bats all the
time.
Even now bears feed good deal in
the open in the spring, when they are
not molested, and spring is by far the
best time to hunt them. But, as a usual
thing, bear nowadays keeps pretty
well under cover. During the day he
| finds the thickest brush or timber that
he can, and there he stays, slipping
away quietly at the slightest sus-
| picous noise. 1t used to be that if a
| bear heard or saw anything that he did
not understand, he would stand up on
| his hind legs to look. And if he was
| suddenly startled, he would often, after
running away. stop and stand up to
| look back. | have killed several bears
in thick brush by getting close to them,
knowing about where they were, and
| then speaking aloud. Bruin would
nearly always stand up 10 investigate,
| thus giving me a shot at his head. But
now a bear that hears 4 human voice
| hardly ever stops to look, but gets away
on the jump.
The blacks and cinnamons also used
to tree very easily. l have run good
many up trees by giving them sharp
run on horseback for a mile or so in
open timber, and have run two up trees
| by chasing them on foot. And twice !
| have missed bears at rather close range
and had them take to trees. In one in
stance the bear went up the nearest
tree; in the other the bear, a she with
cubs, bolted hundred yards or so be-
fore she freed. And speaking of cubs,
| never saw but one she bear that
would not bolt and leave her cubs when
attacked. The exception was small
cinnamon, and | got between her and
her cubs and got charged. Only the
other day I saw three of the dogs maui
a grizzly cub until you could hear him
squall for mile, and the old bear all
the time was standing in the brush not
a hundred yards away, and never offered
30 attack. But nowadays it is almost
| impossible to tree bear or bring it to
bay, even with good dogs. 1t always
was hard to bring grizzly bears to bay
with dogs, but almost any dog would
put a black or cinnamon up tree in
| short order. Now bear will run all
day ahead of the dogs before taking TO
tree or coming to bay. About the only
way to hunt bears at present with any
chance of success is in the spring after
they begin to take bait well. By string
ing out a lot of bats and still-hunting
early and late fair luck may be had
| Forest and Stream.