Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches: An Account of the Big Game of the United States and its Chase with Horse, Hound, and RifleRoosevelt, Theodore
History
Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches: An Account of the Big Game of the United States and its Chase with Horse, Hound, and Rifle
Roosevelt, Theodore
Hunting -- United States
minutes afterwards some of the other cowboys rode up, having been
attracted by the incessant firing. They surrounded the thicket, firing
and throwing stones into the bushes. Finally, as nothing moved, they
ventured in and found the indomitable grisly warrior lying dead.
Cowboys delight in nothing so much as the chance to show their skill as
riders and ropers; and they always try to ride down and rope any wild
animal they come across in favorable ground and close enough up. If
a party of them meets a bear in the open they have great fun; and the
struggle between the shouting, galloping, rough-riders and their shaggy
quarry is full of wild excitement and not unaccompanied by danger.
The bear often throws the noose from his head so rapidly that it is
a difficult matter to catch him; and his frequent charges scatter his
tormentors in every direction while the horses become wild with fright
over the roaring, bristling beast--for horses seem to dread a bear more
than any other animal. If the bear cannot reach cover, however, his
fate is sealed. Sooner or later, the noose tightens over one leg, or
perchance over the neck and fore-paw, and as the rope straightens with a
"plunk," the horse braces itself desperately and the bear tumbles over.
Whether he regains his feet or not the cowboy keeps the rope taut; soon
another noose tightens over a leg, and the bear is speedily rendered
helpless.
I have known of these feats being performed several times in northern
Wyoming, although never in the immediate neighborhood of my ranch. Mr.
Archibald Roger's cowhands have in this manner caught several bears, on
or near his ranch on the Gray Bull, which flows into the Bighorn; and
those of Mr. G. B. Grinnell have also occasionally done so. Any set
of moderately good ropers and riders, who are accustomed to back one
another up and act together, can accomplish the feat if they have smooth
ground and plenty of room. It is, however, indeed a feat of skill and
daring for a single man; and yet I have known of more than one instance
in which it has been accomplished by some reckless knight of the rope
and the saddle. One such occurred in 1887 on the Flathead Reservation,
the hero being a half-breed; and another in 1890 at the mouth of
the Bighorn, where a cowboy roped, bound, and killed a large bear
single-handed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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