Long Valley advocate. (Lardo, Idaho) 1904-1907, 1906-10-04
GRIZZLY is SMART.
MOST CUNNING OF ANIMALS, AC-
CORDlNCi TO HUNTER.
WeIl-Laid Plans to Obtain Snapshot
by Automatic Camera All Frus
trated by Willy Yellow
stone Park Bruin.

SJuuIS dDOuL d patent picture JdhluS
device this week that completely set
at naught the efforts of w. H. Wright,
the hunter naturalist and author to
have them take flashlight snapshot
of themselves. Mr.. Wright has re-
turned to his home in Spokane after a
grizzly in the dense timber Of the
Jackson Hole country at the edge of
Yellowstone park, vowing he will per
feet another automatic camera by
which to circumvent willy Bruin.
"The grizzly is the sharpest animal
that walks on four legs" said he.
"The common bear is an unmiti
gated idiot, compared with him. AL
though ! have spent "a years hunting
grizzlies and have traversed the Rock
les from Alaska to Mexico City in my
quest, learned more about the cum.
ming of the grizzly last week than
ever dreamed.
81 had stretched a tiny black thread
across well-beaten trail, in the ex-
pectation that in the dark they would
walk against it, thereby releasing a
spring that would set off a fiashlight
powder in a camera which | had sta
toned few yards away on the wind
ward side of the trail. | hid in the
branches $50 feet further to the wind
ward and awaited developments.
ut had become so dark that l could
barely discern an object at that dis
lance, when three bears came down
the trail, single file. | was congratu
fating myself on the magnificent pho
tograph | was about to get when the
foremost bear shifted, halted two OF
three feet from that black thread and
ly toward it. He had scented a No
40 linen thread when it was so dark
he could not possibly see it.
THE second bear, curious to know
the cause of the pause and unable to
pass the front one on the narrow trail
placed his front paws on the back of
the leader and peered over his Shout
der at the strange smelling object
The rear bear, equally inquisitive
mounted the back of he second in the
same way and stretched his neck in
the same manner
"The leader touched the thread l.
gerly with his nose Suddenly there
was flash and puff, and the whole
scene was brilliantly illuminated. In
stead of running away, the bears
looked at the sky and then at each
other, as much as to inquire why
there should be flash of lightning on
such a clear night
TO go ahead with the story, when
those bears had recovered from their
surprise, they proceeded to trace that
thread to its source Fortunately. in
stead of following it toward the cam
era, they nosed along toward the end
which was attached to spool. l had
taken the pains to bury that spool
in the ground, but they dug it up in
less time than 1t takes to tell If.
Then they held a serious powwow
over the spool, accompanied by much
sage shaking of heads. After a time
they turned about and beat an order
ly retreat up the trail in the direction
whence they had come"
In all, Mr.. Wright saw 30 bears ap-
proach that thread during his more
than ten days of patient effort to get
a photograph. Of that number not
one crossed the thread Four times
was the trap sprung by Mr.. Bruin, pro-
ducing a spark In small battery at
tached to the pan containing the flash
light powder. One excellent snapshot
was the result. The other flashes
proved inadequate, owing to INSULT
cient powder, producing only a dim
outline of the grizzlies that had
touched the thread with their noses