Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-09-29

way to go before dark. Hunting was
getting poor in this part Of the woods.
He believed he would wander down
toward Hudson's camp and look for
crayfish In the water. A coyote is
usually listed among the larger forest
creatures but early though the hour
was--early, that is, for hunters to be
out-he was stalking a fawn in a
covert.
All the hunts were progressing ia
mOusly when there came curious in
terruption. 1t was peculiar growl,
quite low at first. 1t lasted a long
time, then died away. There was no
opposition to it. The forest creatures
had paused in their tracks at its first
note, and now they stood as If the
winter had come down upon them sud
denly and frozen them solid. All the
other sounds of the forest-the little
whispering noises Of gliding bodies
and fluttering feet and perhaps a
birds call in a shrub-were suddenly
stilled. There was moment of
breathless suspense. Then the sound
commenced again.
It was louder this time 1t rose and
gathered volume until 1t was almost a
roar. 1t carried through the silences
In great waves Of sound And In 1t
was a sense of resistless power; no
creature in the forest but what knew
this fact
1.-THE Gray King" one could imagine
them saying among themselves. The
effect was instantaneous. The little
raccoon halted in his descent then
crept out to the end of a limb. The
coyote, an instant before crawling
with body close to the earth, whipped
about as If he had some strange kind
of circular spring inside of him. He
snarled once In the general direction
Of the Gray King Then he lowered
his head and skulked off deeper into
the coverts.
The blacktail deer, the gray wolf
even the stately Tawny One, stretched
In grace in his lair, wakened from
sleep. The languor died quickly in
the latter's eyes, leaving only fear.
These were braver than the Little
People. They waited until the thick
brush, not far distant from where the
bull elk slept, began to break down
and part before an enormous, gray
body.
No longer would an observer think
of the elk as the forest monarch He
was but pretender, after ALL The
roOl lyfnu hod inst II &c
afternoon nap and was starting forth
to hunt.
Even his little cousins, the black
0ears, did not wait to make converse
tion. They tumbled awkwardly down
the hill to get out of his way For
the massive gray form-weighing over
half ton-was none other than that
of the last of the grizzly bears, that
terrible forest hunter and monarch,
the Killer himself.
Long ago, when Oregon was a new
land to white men, in the days Of the
clipper ships and the Old Oregon
Trail, the breed to which the Killer be-
longed were really numerous through
the little corner north Of the Siskiyous
and west of the Cascades. They were
q worthy breed If the words of GER
tain old men could be believed, the
southern Oregon grizzly occasionally,
in the bountiful fall days, attained a
weight of two thousand pounds No
doubt whatever remains that thou
sand-pound bears were numerous.
But unlike the little black bears, the
grizzlies developed displeasing habits.
They were much more carnivorous in
character than the blacks, and their
great bodily strength and power en-
abled them to master all of the myriad
forms of game In the Oregon woods
BY the same token they could take a
full-grown steer and carry 1t off as a
woman carries her baby.
1t couldn't be endured. The cattle
men had begun to settle the valleys
and 1t was either a case of killing the
grizzlies or yielding the valleys to
them In the relentless war that fol