CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
OLD IKE AND THE GRIZZLY.
A--'s adventure ending in a grizzly bear story, drew the conversationupon that celebrated animal, and we listened to the many curious factsrelated about it, with more than usual interest.
The grizzly bear (_Ursus ferox_) is, beyond all question, the mostformidable of the wild creatures inhabiting the continent of America--jaguar and cougar not excepted. Did he possess the swiftness of foot ofeither the lion or tiger of the Old World, he would be an assailant asdangerous as either; for he is endowed with the strength of the former,and quite equals the latter in ferocity. Fortunately, the horse outrunshim; were it not so, many a human victim would be his, for he can easilyovertake a man on foot. As it is, hundreds of well-authenticatedstories attest the prowess of this fierce creature. There is not a"mountain-man" in America who cannot relate a string of perilousadventures about the "grizzly bar;" and the instances are far from beingfew, in which human life has been sacrificed in conflicts with thissavage beast.
The grizzly bear is an animal of large dimensions; specimens have beenkilled and measured quite equal to the largest size of the polar bear,though there is much variety in the sizes of different individuals.About 500 pounds might be taken as the average weight.
In shape, the grizzly bear is a much more compact animal than either theblack or polar species: his ears are larger, his arms stouter, and hisaspect fiercer. His teeth are sharp and strong; but that which hisenemies most dread is the armature of his paws. The paws themselves areso large, as frequently to leave in the mud a track of twelve inches inlength, by eight in breadth; and from the extremities of theseformidable fists protrude horn-like claws full six inches long! Ofcourse, we are speaking of individuals of the largest size.
These claws are crescent-shaped, and would be still longer, but in allcases nearly an inch is worn from their points.
The animal digs up the ground in search of marmots, burrowing squirrels,and various esculent roots; and this habit accounts for the bluntedcondition of his claws. They are sharp enough, notwithstanding, to peelthe hide from a horse or buffalo, or to drag the scalp from a hunter--afeat which has been performed by grizzly bears on more than oneoccasion.
The colour of this animal is most generally brownish, with white hairsintermixed, giving that greyish or grizzled appearance--whence thetrivial name, grizzly. But although this is the most common colour ofthe species, there are many varieties. Some are almost white, othersyellowish red, and still others nearly black. The season, too, has muchto do with the colour; and the pelage is shaggier and longer than thatof the _Ursus Americanus_. The eyes are small in proportion to the sizeof the animal, but dark and piercing.
The geographical range of the grizzly bear is extensive. It iswell-known that the great chain of the Rocky Mountains commences on theshores of the Arctic Ocean, and runs southwardly through theNorth-American continent. In those mountains, the grizzly bear isfound, from their northern extremity, at least as far as that pointwhere the Rio Grande makes its great bend towards the Gulf of Mexico.
In the United States and Canada, this animal has never been seen in awild state. This is not strange. The grizzly bear has no affinity withthe forest. Previous to the settling of these territories, they wereall forest-covered. The grizzly is rarely found under heavy timber,like his congener the black bear; and, unlike the latter, he is not atree-climber. The black bear "hugs" himself up a tree, and usuallydestroys his victim by compression. The grizzly does not possess thispower, so as to enable him to ascend a tree-trunk; and for such apurpose, his huge dull claws are worse than useless. His favouritehaunts are the thickets of _Corylus rubus_, and _Amelanchiers_, underthe shade of which he makes his lair, and upon the berries of which hepartially subsists. He lives much by the banks of streams, huntingamong the willows, or wanders along the steep and rugged bluffs, wherescrubby pine and dwarf cedar (_Juniperus prostrata_), with its rootingbranches, forms an almost impenetrable underwood. In short, the grizzlybear of America is to be met with in situations very similar to thosewhich are the favourite haunts of the African lion, which, after all, isnot so much the king of the forest, as of the mountain and the openplain.
The grizzly bear is omnivorous. Fish, flesh, and fowl are eaten by himapparently with equal relish. He devours frogs, lizards, and otherreptiles.
He is fond of the larvae of insects; these are often found in largequantities adhering to the under sides of decayed logs. To get at them,the grizzly bear will roll over logs of such size and weight, as wouldtry the strength of a yoke of oxen.
He can "root" like a hog, and will often plough up acres of prairie insearch of the wapatoo and Indian turnip. Like the black bear, he isfond of sweets; and the wild-berries, consisting of many species ofcurrant, gooseberry, and service berry, are greedily gathered into hiscapacious maw.
He is too slow of foot to overtake either buffalo, elk, or deer, thoughhe sometimes comes upon these creatures unawares; and he will drag thelargest buffalo to the earth, if he can only get his claws upon it.
Not unfrequently he robs the panther of his repast, and will drive awhole pack of wolves from the carrion they have just succeeded inkilling.
Several attempts have been made to raise the young grizzlies, but thesehave all been abortive, the animals proving anything but agreeable pets.As soon as grown to a considerable size, their natural ferocitydisplays itself, and their dangerous qualities usually lead to thenecessity for their destruction.
For a long time the great polar bear has been the most celebrated animalof his kind; and most of the bear-adventures have related to him. Manya wondrous tale of his prowess and ferocity has been told by the whalerand arctic voyager, in which this creature figures as the hero. Hisfame, however, is likely to be eclipsed by his hitherto less-knowncongener--the grizzly. The golden lure which has drawn half the worldto California, has also been the means of bringing this fierce animalmore into notice; for the mountain-valleys of the Sierra Nevada are afavourite range of the species. Besides, numerous "bear scrapes" haveoccurred to the migrating bands who have crossed the great plains anddesert tracts that stretch from the Mississippi to the shores of theSouth Sea. Hundreds of stories of this animal, more or less true, haveof late attained circulation through the columns of the press and thepages of the traveller's note-book, until the grizzly bear is becomingalmost as much an object of interest as the elephant, the hippopotamus,or the king of beasts himself.
Speaking seriously, he is a dangerous assailant. White hunters neverattack him unless when mounted and well armed; and the Indians considerthe killing a grizzly bear a feat equal to the scalping of a human foe.These never attempt to hunt him, unless when a large party is together;and the hunt is, among some tribes, preceded by a ceremonious feast anda bear-dance.
It is often the lot of the solitary trapper to meet with thisfour-footed enemy, and the encounter is rated as equal to that with twohostile Indians.
Of course, both Redwood and old Ike had met with more than one "barscrape," and the latter was induced to relate one of his best.
"Strengers," began he, "when you scare up a grizzly, take my advice, andgie 'im a wide berth--that is, unless yur unkimmun well mounted. Ovcoorse, ef yur critter kin be depended upon, an' thur's no brush to'tangle him, yur safe enuf; as no grizzly, as ever I seed, kin catch upwi' a hoss, whur the ground's open an' clur. F'r all that, whur thetimmer's clost an' brushy, an' the ground o' that sort whur a hoss moutstummel, it are allers the safest plan to let ole Eph'm slide. I'veseed a grizzly pull down as good a hoss as ever tracked a parairy, whurthe critter hed got bothered in a thicket. The fellur that straddledhim only saved himself by hookin' on to the limb o' a tree. 'Twant twominnits afore this child kim up--hearin' the rumpus. I hed good sighto' the bar, an' sent a bullet--sixty to the pound--into the varmint'sbrain-pan, when he immediately cawalloped over. But 'twur too late tosave the hoss. He wur rubbed out. The bar had half skinned him, an'wur tarrin' at his gut
s! Wagh!"
Here the trapper unsheathed his clasp-knife, and having cut a "chunk"from a plug of real "Jeemes's River," stuck it into his cheek, andproceeded with his narration.
"I reck'n, I've seed a putty consid'able o' the grizzly bar in my time.Ef them thur chaps who writes about all sorts o' varmint hed seed asmuch o' the grizzly as I hev, they mout a gin a hul book consarnin' thecritter. Ef I hed a plug o' bacca for every grizzly I've rubbed out, it'ud keep my jaws waggin' for a good twel'month, I reck'n. Ye-es,strengers, I've done some bar-killin'--I hev that, an' no mistake!Hain't I, Mark?
"Wal, I wur a-gwine to tell you ov a sarcumstance that happened to thischild about two yeern ago. It wur upon the Platte, atween Chimbly Rockan' Laramies'.
"I wur engaged as hunter an' guide to a carryvan o' emigrant folks thatwur on thur way to Oregon.
"Ov coorse I allers kept ahead o' the carryvan, an' picked the place forthur camp.
"Wal, one arternoon I hed halted whur I seed some timmer, which ur ascace article about Chimbly Rock. This, thort I, 'll do forcampin'-ground; so I got down, pulled the saddle off o' my ole mar, an'staked the critter upon the best patch o' grass that wur near, intendin'she shed hev her gut-full afore the camp cattle kim up to bother her.
"I hed shot a black-tail buck, an' after kindlin' a fire, I roasted agriskin' o' him, an' ate it.
"Still thur wan't no sign o' the carryvan, an' arter hangin' the buckout o' reach o' the wolves, I tuk up my rifle, an' set out torackynoiter the neighbourhood.
"My mar bein' some'at jaded, I let her graze away, an' went afoot; an'that, let me tell you, strengers, ar about the foolichest thing you kindo upon a parairy. I wan't long afore I proved it; but I'll kum to thatby 'm by.
"Wal, I fust clomb a conside'able hill, that gin me a view beyont. Thurwar a good-sized parairy layin' torst the south an' west. Thur wur notrees 'ceptin' an odd cotton-wood hyur an' thur on the hillside.
"About a mile off I seed a flock of goats--what you'd call antelopes,though goats they ur, as sure as goats is goats.
"Thur waunt no kiver near them--not a stick, for the parairy wur as baras yur hand; so I seed, at a glimp, it 'ud be no use a tryin' toapproach, unless I tuk some plan to decoy the critters.
"I soon thort o' a dodge, an' went back to camp for my blanket, whichwur a red Mackinaw. This I knew 'ud be the very thing to fool the goatswith, an' I set out torst them.
"For the fust half-a-mile or so, I carried the blanket under my arm.Then I spread it out, an' walked behind it until I wur 'ithin three orfour hundred yards o' the animals. I kept my eye on 'em through a holein the blanket. They wur a-growin' scary, an' hed begun to run about incircles; so when I seed this, I knew it wur time to stop.
"Wal, I hunkered down, an' still keepin' the blanket spread out aforeme, I hung it upon a saplin' that I had brought from the camp. I thenstuck the saplin' upright in the ground; an' mind ye, it wan't so easyto do that, for the parairy wur hard friz, an' I hed to dig a hole wi'my knife. Howsomdever, I got the thing rigged at last, an' the blankethangin' up in front kivered my karkidge most complete. I hed nothin'more to do but wait till the goats shed come 'ithin range o' myshootin'-iron.
"Wal, that wan't long. As ye all know, them goats is a mighty curiousanimal--as curious as weemen is--an arter runnin' backward an' forrard abit, an' tossin' up thur heads, an' sniffin' the air, one o' thefattest, a young prong-horn buck, trotted up 'ithin fifty yards o' me.
"I jest squinted through the sights, an' afore that goat hed time towink twice, I hit him plum atween the eyes. Ov coorse he wur throwed inhis tracks.
"Now, you'd a-jumped up, an' frightened the rest away--that's what you'da done, strengers. But you see I knowd better. I knowd that so long'sthe critters didn't see my karkidge, they wan't a-gwine to mind thecrack o' the gun. So I laid still, in behopes to git a wheen more o'them.
"As I hed calc'lated at fust, they didn't run away, an' I slipped in mycharge as brisk as possible. But jest as I wur raisin' to take sight ona doe that hed got near enough, the hull gang tuk scare, an' broke offas ef a pack of parairy-wolves wur arter 'em.
"I wur clean puzzled at this, for I knowd I hedn't done anythin' tofrighten 'em, but I wan't long afore I diskivered the pause o' thuralarm. Jest then I heerd a snift, like the coughin' o' a glanderedhoss; an' turnin' suddintly round, I spied the biggest bar it hed everbeen my luck to set eyes on. He wur comin' direct torst me, an' at thatminnit wan't over twenty yards from whur I lay. I knowd at a glimp hewur a grizzly!
"'Tain't no use to say I wan't skeart; I wur skeart, an' mighty badskeart, I tell ye.
"At fust, I thort o' jumpin' to my feet, an' makin' tracks; but a minnito' reflexshun showed me that 'ud be o' little use. Thur wur a half o'mile o' clur parairy on every side o' me, an' I knowd the grizzly laidcatch up afore I hed made three hundred yards in any direction. Iknowd, too, that ef I started, the varmint 'ud be sartin to foller. Itwur plain to see the bar meant mischief; I kud tell that from the glinto' his eyes.
"Thur wan't no time to lose in thinkin' about it. The brute wur stillcomin' nearer; but I noticed that he wur a-gwine slower an' slower,every now an' agin risin' to his hind-feet, clawin' his nose, an'sniffin' the air.
"I seed that it wur the red blanket that puzzled him; an' seein' this, Icrep' closter behint it, an' cached as much o' my karkidge as it 'udkiver.
"When the bar hed got 'ithin about ten yards o' the spot, he kim to afull stop, an' reared up as he hed did several times, with his bellyfull torst me. The sight wur too much for this niggur, who never aforehad been bullied by eyther Injun or bar.
"'Twur a beautiful shot, an' I kudn't help tryin' it, ef 't hed been mylast; so I poked my rifle through the hole in the blanket, an' sent abullet atween the varmint's ribs.
"That wur, perhaps, the foolichest an' wust shot this child ever made.Hed I not fired it, the bar mout a gone off, feard o' the blanket; but Idid fire, an' my narves bein' excited, I made a bad shot.
"I had ta'en sight for the heart, an' I only hit the varmint's shoulder.
"Ov coorse, the bar bein' now wounded, bekim savage, and cared no longerfor the blanket. He roared out like a bull, tore at the place whur Ihed hit him, an' then kim on as fast as his four legs 'ud carry him.
"Things looked squally. I throwed away my emp'y gun, an' drawed mybowie, expectin' nothin' else than a regular stand-up tussle wi' thebar. I knowd it wur no use turnin' tail now; so I braced myself up fora desp'rate fight.
"But jest as the bar hed got 'ithin ten feet o' me, an idee suddintlykim into my head. I hed been to Santa Fe, among them yaller-hidedMexikins, whur I hed seed two or three bull-fights. I hed seed themmattydoors fling thur red cloaks over a bull's head, jest when you'd athort they wur a-gwine to be gored to pieces on the fierce critter'shorns.
"Jest then, I remembered thur trick; an' afore the bar cud close on me,I grabbed the blanket, spreadin' it out as I tuk holt.
"Strangers, that wur a blanket an' no mistake! It wur as fine afive-point Mackinaw as ever kivered the hump-ribs o' a nor'-west trader.I used to wear it Mexikin-fashun when it rained; an' in coorse, forthat purpose, thur wur a hole in the middle to pass the head through.
"Wal, jest as the bar sprung at me, I flopped the blanket straight inhis face. I seed his snout a passin' through the hole, but I seed nomore; for I feeled the critter's claws touchin' me, an' I let go.
"Now, thunk I, wur my time for a run. The blanket mout blin' him aleetle, an' I mout git some start.
"With this thort, I glid past the animal's rump, an' struck out over theparairy.
"The direction happened to be that that led torst the camp, half a mileoff; but thur wur a tree nearer, on the side o' the hill. Ef I kudreach that, I knowd I 'ud be safe enuf, as the grizzly bar it don'tclimb.
"For the fust hundred yards I never looked round; then I only squintedback, runnin' all the while.
"I kud jest see that the bar appeared to be still a tossin' the blanket,and not fur from whur we hed part
ed kumpny.
"I thort this some'at odd; but I didn't stay to see what it meant till Ihed put another hundred yards atween us. Then I half turned, an' tuk agood look; an' if you believe me, strangers, the sight I seed thur 'ud amade a Mormon larf. Although jest one minnit afore, I wur putty nighskeart out o' my seven senses, that sight made me larf till I wur liketo bring on a colic.
"Thur wur the bar wi' his head right a-through the blanket. One minnit,he 'ud rear up on his hind-feet, an' then the thing hung roun' him likea Mexikin greaser. The next minnit, he 'ud be down on all-fours, an'tryin' to foller me; an' then the Mackinaw 'ud trip him up, an' over he'ud whammel, and kick to get free--all the while routin' like a madbuffalo. Jehosophat! it wur the funniest sight this child ever seed.Wagh!
"Wal, I watched the game awhile--only a leetle while; for I knowd thatif the bar could git clur o' the rag, he mout still overtake me, an'drive me to the tree. That I didn't wan't, eyther, so I tuk to my heelsagin' and soon reached camp.
"Thur I saddled my mar, an' then rid back to git my gun, an', perhaps,to give ole Eph'm a fresh taste o' lead.
"When I clomb the hill agin, the bar wur still out on the parairy, an' Icud see that the blanket wur a-hanging around 'im. Howsomdever, he wurmakin' off torst the hills, thinkin', maybe, he'd hed enuf o' my kumpny.
"I wan't a-gwine to let 'im off so easy, for the skear he hed 'gin me;besides, he wur traillin' my Mackinaw along wi' 'im. So I galluped towhur my gun lay, an' havin' rammed home a ball, I then galluped arterole grizzly.
"I soon overhauled him, an' he turned on me as savagerous as ever. Butthis time, feeling secure on the mar's back, my narves wur steadier; an'I shot the bar plum through the skull, which throwed him in his trackswi' the blanket wropped about 'im.
"But sich a blanket as that wur then--ay, sich a blanket! I never seedsich a blanket! Thur wunt a square foot o' it that wan't torn toraggles. Ah, strangers, you don't know what it are to lose a five-pointMackinaw; no, that you don't. Cuss the bar!"