HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8842, 2 April 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

HUNTING THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

[BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT.]

The only really dangerous game of the United States is tho grizzly bear. It is true that tho cougar will under very exceptional circumstances assail the hunter, and so will tho bull moose if his pursuer blunders too near him ; but with both of these animals the element of danger is so small that it may be practically disregarded. With the grizzly it is different. Any man who makes a practice of hunting this great shaggy mountain king must make up his mind that on certain occasion* he will have to show nerve and good shooting in ordor to bring down a charging bear. Still, the danger has become much exaggerated. The average grizzly has but ono idea when ho sees a man, and that is to get away ; it will run as quickly as a rabbit. Even when wounded a great many bears absolutely refuse to fight, seeking refuge only in flight. Nevertheless, there are plenty of grizzlies that will tight when wounded and cornered, and there are a very few which will take tho offensive themselves without any particular provocation. Personally, 1 have never been charged but once, and this was by a grizzly which I had twice wounded and had approached to within 40 yards, late one evening when I had strolled, away from camp more with tiie hope of knocking off the head of a grouse than with the expectation of seeing any larger game. This bear came at me most resolutely, although ono of my shots nicked the point of his heart, and although one of tho four bullets which I put into him would have ultimately proved mortal. All of the other bears I have killed started to run, or fell at the first fire, so that they had no chance of showing tight. It is, however, very unsafe for a man to generalise in any kind of shooting, and particularly in bear shooting, merely from hi# own experience. Thus, I know one gentleman, an officer in the United States Army, who has killed six grizzlies, three of them charging him before they wore wounded or even tired at. The incidents of the three charges were curiously alike ; that is, he stumbled on the bear in each case at tolerably close quarters, at from 10 to 20 yards away from him, and each time tho instant tho animal saw him it galloped toward him like a locomotive, only to bo rolled over by a wellplaced rifle ball. The grizzly is very tenacious of life, and so great are his vitality and pugnacity that a fighting bear will continue charging when its body is fairly riddled with bullets. A shot, in the brain or spine will of course bring one down in its tracks, but even a bullet through the heart will not prevent an enraged grizzly from making good its charge at close quarters. A man was once killed near my rancho by a grizzly under peculiar circumstances. He was one of a couple of men who had been coming down the Little Missouri on a raft at the time of tiie freshets. They stopped at our ranche to get lunch. Both of them were rather hard-looking customers. When they had eaten their fill they pushed off their raft again, and continued down stream ; but a couple of days later one of them turned up with the information that the other had been killed by a bear. They had seen the animal and had followed it into a little basin or valley less than 100 yards across, and filled with dense underbrush. Their utmost endeavours failed to enable them to catch a glimpse of tho bear in this thick cover, and after circling round and round and throwing stones into it to no purpose, one of the men announced his intention of crawling in after the bear. His companion remonstrated with him in vain, and in he went on all fours, dragging his rifle after him and peering ahead in the gloom among the dark, twisted stems of the young growth. Before ho had gone a dozen yards he came right on tho bear, so close at hand that he had neither time to shoot nor so much as call out before the great paw of the bear smashed in his skull like an egg-shell. His companion finally got the body out, but the boar escaped scathless. The best way to hunt the grizzly is with" a pack of thoroughly trained, large and fierce dogs. Ordinary hounds not specially trained for the work are valueless, being entirely unable to hold the great animal at bay ; and it is exceedingly difficult to get a pack which can do really effective work. In fact, I know of the existence of but one or two such. The only legitimate methods of hunting tho bear ordinarily in vogue are still hunting proper, and lying in wait at a bait. In still hunting one goes abroad early in the morning or late in tho evening and hunts through the localities where the bear is likely to be found feeding, keeping a sharp lookout and trying to creep up on the shaggy monster unobserved. The best time for pursuing this sport is in the spring when the snow is on the ground and when the bears have just emerged from their holes and are roaming with hungry eagerness all over the land. Successfully to stalk a bear tries all the hunter's knowledge of the craft, for although its sight is not particularly good it possesses the keenest both of noses and ears. Another and ordinarily successful method is to toll the animal to baits and lie in wait beside the latter. In this kind of hunting a steer, an old horse, or an elk carcase is left at some likely spot where the hunter lies ambushed and awaits for the approach of the bear. It is customary to allow him to feed on the carcase two or three nights undisturbed first. If he is a shy brute he rarely makes his appearance until midnight, and unless there is a full moon it is impossible to get a shot at him. Where they are not much hunted, however, bears will como to these carcases quite early in the afternoon. I have obtained several under such circumstances.

A great many bears are killed by trapping. This is perfectly legitimate if they are being killed as a, matter of business for their hides, for the bounty, or as vermin, but it is not sport at all. No sportsman has any right to kill a trapped boar and claim the animal as of his own killing. If he cannot shoot one legitimately by still hunting or in some other kind of chase, and has to rely upon his guide setting a trap for the animal, then for heaven's sake let him hand the guide tho rifle and have him finish the work he has begun. Shooting a trapped bear.for sport is a thoroughly unsportsman like proceeding, and stands only a degree or two higher than that foulest of butcheries, shooting a swimming deer in the water from a boat.

In spite of the great bulk, formidable teeth, and enormous claws of the grizzly, it is normally a frugiverous and insectivorous animal, feeding on berries, nuts, and the insects it obtains under stones and logs. At times, however,it becomes a flesh eater, and it then attacks tho largest animals, whether wild or tame. Not only horses, cattle, and elk, but even the bison itself has fallen victim to a hungry grizzly. Like all boars, however, it has an especial taste for pork. In the Yellowstone Park the pigs in the sties near the hotels have on a number of occasions been carried off by bears, which have leaped tho wall, seizod the poor squealing piggy and bundled him out to his doom over the fence. A gruesome trait of the bear is his habit of eating his prey alive, with bland indifference to its yelling protests.