Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-01
CAMERA HUNT FOX BEARS
SUGGESTIONS TO PHoToGRA-
PIERS WANTING BIG GAME.
How to Act With Three Monster
Black Fellows Within Ten
Feet of You.
From Country Life in America


There are exciting moments in fishing
ana IN base ball and in bridge whist, but
If asfull grown man with red blood in
his veins and with well-poised nerves
WISHES TO experience the real thing in ad-
venture, let him try photographing big
game at close range-animals two or three
times as big as himself and reputed to be
murderous. Here Is an incident in point.
1t was shutdown in the Rockies. and the
Dlrds were making the woods echo with
the Volume OF their songs. 1 stood quiet
ana Watchful on the lee side of the trail
Waltlng for my friends, the grizzlies Day
night after night they had fooled me.
My trap consisted Of camera. a bat
terry, hashlight apparatus and a. fine
wire stretched across a narrow place in
the tran. They never passed it. The
fine wire, completely hidden among the
leaves, always stopped them by its scent.
Black bears will paw at things they
don't understand, but the grizzly, while
no less. curious, shifts cautiously at the
unknown thing and then passes by on the
other side.
This night I was determined to dis
cover whether it was the wire or the
man tracks that stopped them. After /
had adjusted my camera 1 turned and
walked back down the trail and then
turned off into little clearing.
Here I waited behind big tree. knew
that If the bears cared about my tracks
they would know, in their inexplfcable
wisdom, which way had gone and would
proceed to investigate,
The Bears Arrive.
At last they came along, three huge,
numbering fellows. their bulky forms
showing monstrous in the gathering dusk.
They shifted at my trail when they caught
It, but they did not stop until they reached
the hidden wire. That brought them to
standstill
First one shifted and then another un-
til It occurred to them that possibly my
tracks had something to- do with this
strange thing. So back they came along
the tran, not angry, but simply bent on
finding out.
In my interest I had left nv tree and
when they reached the little clearing they
found me in full view. 1 was entirely
unarmed, as usual, having not even a
sheath knife, but twenty-five years ex-
perience with bears has taught me a few
things about them. and under the cir
cumstances 1 had no more fear than If
they had been so many healthy bull ter
riers.
1 stood perfectly still there in the open.
trying hard not to wink, but feeling all
the time that was swaying like reed
IN the wind. They had not yet caught
the direct man scent, but they saw me.
All three stood bolt upright on their hind
feet and rubbered. You can fool almost
anything more easily that you can fool
a grizzly bear, and you may imagine
that l played the game with zest and
tried to hold my body steady.
Unable to make out what 1 was, they
dropped on all fours and gradually APP
preached. A large fallen tree lay be-
tween us, and soon this hid them from
view. ! watched it breathlessly.
Close Investigation.
Presently snout and two bright eyes
appeared noiselessly above the log, and
then the whole head and shoulders, as the
leader reconnoftered. Then a second head
appeared beside him, but the leader was
not yet satisfied, and placing his paw
over the other bears snout, gently pushed
him back How l wanted to laugh.
At some signal, invisible to me, the
other two bears arose. and all three
scrambled over the tree trunk. They were
but short distance away, and yet I
heard not SO much as the scratch of
claw on the bark.
Nearer and nearer they came until the
leader was not over ten feet away Then
catching the man scent and losing cour-
age. or having sufficiently satisfied their
curiosity, they turned and shambled off.
I heaved sigh. not of relief. but Of
no camera in my hands. All, what
picture that would have made! But pic
lures of grizzlies are not so easy to get
If they were, half the fun would be
gone.
The black bear Is most interesting
animal to study and to hunt with the
camera But unless you know their hab-
its you might search the mountains over
and never see one The only way is to
wait for. them to come to you.
They are omnivorous animals, with
great fondness for certain roots and
grasses, and for berries. The black bear
is very intelligent and interesting and
one Of the most humorous animals in the
world. He has given me many hearty
laugh. These bears will never attack I'M
less first molested If disturbed they
usually run away, and they certainly can
run. For short distance they can beat
q horse in the open, and in the woods
nothing can catch them.