Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1903-03-26
GRIZZLIES OF IDAHO.


| AiAuClC agreement WIN wen III tnc Larry
| Days Not to Modest Each Other.
"Spealsing of grizzly bears" said
| Judge Henry I. Warren to New Yorl;
Sun man, 1--WE didn't look on these an.
imals as particularly dangerous in
| Idaho when / was the United States
| district attorney of that territory. II
man attacked one at close quarters
he sometimes got killed, but at lit
tie distance not much more attention
was paid to bears than if they had
been SO many hogs or cattle. Between
human beings and the bears there
seemed to be at that time q tacit
agreement to let one another alone.
zone of my hardest horseback trips
led me through a wild region where I
often saw bears. At one point the
trail crossed an open valley, dotted
with scattering big trees and clumps of
underbrush, and on the further side
wound up a steep mountain side
through thick oak and pine woods.
Coming down into that valley one day
I saw, n little way off ON my right,
five bears, two very large ones and
three smaller ones, constituting pos
sibly family party. They were run
ming about here and there nosing the
ground, turning over stones and knock
ing to pieces rotten logs, hunting for
mice and grubs. They apparently
paid no attention to me a. rode past,
one hundred and fifty yards away.
My horse looked little wild and fidg-
eted some at the sight II them, but
kept him in the trail without difficulty.
''At another time a bear gave me
considerable of scare. | had Just
crossed this same valley and was Just
beginning to ascend the wooded
heights beyond it. | he'd 3ismuunted,
and was leading my horse APP the steep
hillside when a bear brak, ont of the
bushes a little behind me aud came for
me furiously, showing her teeth and |
growing. l stood still expecting to
be torn to pieces the next moment, |
from the determined way in which she |
came-it was a She bear-but she |
stopped just short of selling me and
turned to dash in the same way at my
horse, and at that | dropped the bride |
and made up the trail IA last as could |
go. My horse, instead af turning back .
to run for life in the clear open ground |
of the valley, when she charged mt him,
made a detour up the hill and came
back on the trail behind ne. The bear,
looking mighty ugly with her frothing
mouth and bristline hair, kept up her
directing them princi- |
pally at my horse. You know how a |
horse, when thoroughly frightened, !
will seek the company and protection |
Of humanity, and SO, do all | could to |
drive him away, my beast all the time
kept right behind me with his nose at
my shoulder, trembling with fear, but !
to leave me. as the bear kept
making dashes at us out of the bushes,
sometimes from one side and sometimes
from the other.
II didn't know then what 1 have
learned from the habits of the animals
since, that the bear was running bluff
on us and did not mean so much to
harm us as to scare rs away. She I'M
doubtedly had enbs concealed close by
in the bushes and resorted to common
trick of the female bear To drive away
intruders. Probably ii ! had stood my
ground she would have tackled me and
in that case it would have been all up
with me. She followed rs one hun
dred yards or SO and thep. seeming sat
istied that she had got US fairly on the
run, fell back into the bushes and
watched us out of sight