The Snowflake herald., 1922-10-27

place on a high limb, stretched him
self, scratched at his fur, then began
to steal down the limb. He had long
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 fa-
mously when there came curious In
terruption. 1t was a peculiar growl,
quite low at first. It lasted long
time, then died away. There was no
opposition to 1t. The forest creatures
had paused in their tracks at it's first
note, and now they stood as IL 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 a moment of
breathless suspense. Then the sound
commenced again.
It was louder this time. It rose and
| gathered volume until it 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.
"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 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
| body.
No longer would an observer think
Of the elk as the forest monarch. He
was but a pretender, after all. The
real king had just wakened from his
afternoon nap and was starting forth
| to hunt
Even his little cousins, the black
| bears, did not wait to make conversa-
tion. They tumbled awkwardly down
the hill to get out of his way. For
the massive gray form-weighing over
half a 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
a worthy breed If the words Of GER
tain old men could be believed, the
southern Oregon grizzly occasionally,
in the bOuntiful fall days, attained q
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 it was either case Of killing the
| grizzlies or yielding the valleys to
| them. In the relentless war that fol-
lowed, the breed had been practically
| wiped out. A few Of them, perhaps,
| fled farther and farther up the Cas-
cades, finding refugees in the Canadian
mountains. Others travelled east, To-
eating at last in the Rocky noun
| tains, and countless numbers of them
died. At last, as far as the frontiers
men knew, only one great specimen
| remained. This was a famous bear
that men called Slewfoot-a magnifi-
| cent animal that ranged far and
hunted relentlessly, and no one ever
knew just when they were going to
run across him. He was apt suddenly
to loom up, like a gray cliff, at any
turn in the trail, and his disposition
grew querulous with age. In fact, in
stead Of fleeing as most wild creatures
have learned to do, he was rather
likely to make sudden and unexpected