The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-16

| generation longer. In Iact, 1 QOnt De- | lieve the greatest game beast on the western hemisphere will be gone for many years to come, notwithstanding I popular opinion to the contrary: Along about 1862. when Leland Stanford was | governor of California, a bounty | of twenty-five dollars was given
 by the state for every grizzly bear scalp sent or brought to the state con- | trollers office. I got about 40 scalps mysels in one year, and believe that | California paid for over 800 scalps in Il two years.
 But now the grizzly has retreated to | the inaccessible canyons, away back in | the sierras and Coast range, and he ranges among the mountains many miles remote from any white mans | abode. Indeed, far removed from where | any human being goes for years at a time. There are probably about 60 1 grizzlies taken every year in California, and judging from what hunters tell me and from my partners and my own ob- servations, there must be twice that
 number born every 12 months. Twins | are not uncommon among grizzlies, and
 I've known personally of triplet grizzly cubs
 Grizzlies and black bears are now more numerous in the mountains in
 Kern and Mono counties than before in some time. My partner says it is be- cause the ranchmen and lumber conn panies have cleared away so much from I the lower mountain sides. When the Il timber was thick, the bears were forced l to forage on roots and barks. and on the I rather scanty supplies which the pig 1 pens and sheep corrals of the scattered settlers afforded them. The clearing .l away of the woods has been followed II by the appearance in very big area of ,l all kinds of berry bushes, the fruit of
 which forms the favorite food of the
 bears and on which they thrive.
 , ''The grizzly is the fierecest beast in st America, but can see that the temper of the animal has softened even in the Il years I have been hunting. The maga-5 zine rifles, the safe, sure steel traps and
 the improved accuracy of the hunters ! have done a vast deal to show the old J monarch of the Sierras that he is no. Al longer the power he was. The most sI formidable grizzlies I ever had any eX- Il perience with were those up in Idaho,
 where the Northern Pacific railroad
 now runs through the state. A dozen of
 us were paid to go up there one year to Il pump lead into the bears that were a
 menace to miners and retarded the de-
 velopment of Idaho territory, It has
 I been an endless discussion about our I campfres why the grizzly bears of the
 i Idaho mountains should grow so much
 llarger than the grizzly of the Sierras in.
 the states, but a long and varied ex-5
 perience in hunting these animals in their respective localities has proved to
 me that such is the fact. No grizzly 1. bear that ever captured or that ever knew to be captured south of Idaho
 measured more than 71s feet from mug gle to tail or weighed more than. 12O0 i pounds. But it was no uncommon ! thing in the palmy days of grizzly bears in Idaho for the hunter to be
 confronted by one of these monsters lnine feet. in length and with q bulk of 1900 pounds or more. I have seen Idaho grizzlies that, when they threw them
 selves on their hannehes and rose erect,
 lowered five and six feet above me, and
 let me impress upon you that It takes a
 whole lot of A No. I nerve to: stand in that tremendous presence and
 do battle coolly and with a level head. . Grizzly bears, like all the rest of the l bear family, have the curious habit of rising against tree and reaching up as far as they can with their forepaws. . making marks In the bark by digging 1t
 with their claws. I have more than j once come across these measuring ! Imarks of the grizzly, as the marks on ! the, bark are. called, 12 feet above the : ground. Imagine coming suddenly ; upon beast like that in some deep ra- vine or insolated spot almost impossible ]. owing to the down timber, heaped and
 tangled on the ground, and surrounded
 by rocks and thick underbrush! ! Imagine how a great hulking beast like l | that can below as 1t comes raging
 toward it's pursuer.. The very ground |. shakes at the sound of the advancing , animal cyclone. The sight of his great l Jaws, open and red, and his eyes fiash- , ing in fury at you from the enormous head that towers 50 far above you, is something only to be appreciated when
 once seen. ssSssta@ a gst&. '+ .4 ~t E L+ :! "This naturally leads to the subjects of grizzlies attacking without cause. ! I don't suppose that argument will ever ! be really settled by the countless dis cussions around camp fires of hunters.
 The. Forty-niners in California used to tell how the grizzlies sometimes bounced upon men and killed them for st deviltry, and the people who came { across the plains and mountains told how they have had grizzlies come into their wagons and camps at night and attack men. But I have never yet known personally of bear which was 7 so bold as that. On the contrary, I be- lieve that any bear will get away from a hunter if it has the least chance, and : it is not angered. But when the beast is angered by q wound or irtrusion--look out Animal nature has no fury like a angered grizzlys.. I could sit here all day and tell of how grizzly bear has : charged straight for his. pursuer when it has been wounded. There's nothing a : grizzly bear in anger will not attack. A batter of heavy artillery in full action has no terrors for maddened grizzly of either sex. Woe be to the man who . lhappens within the range of such a beast. The bear would tear him into | shreds in few seconds. l#-