Hunting -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
These beasts are often found on the Rocky Mountains, where they are very
numerous, as the hunters do not care to pursue them. Everybody is glad
to get out of their way, and only uses weapons against them when he is
attacked, or can fire at them from a place of safety, such as a boat on
a river, when the bears are on land, or from a stout tree. The Indians
also only fight them in self-defence, and hence their claws are
considered the greatest mark of honour with which they can adorn
themselves. The value of a grizzly stands in no proportion to the danger
the hunter incurs in pursuing it, for its hide is too heavy, and its
hair not so fine as that of the black bear: it never becomes so fat as
the latter, and its flesh is not so delicate. Hence people are glad to
avoid it, and the hunter willingly surrenders his booty to it, when on
following the bloody track of a head of game he runs a risk of being
caught up by the grizzly. This animal does not know what fear is, and
once irritated it will fight and hit as long as it is able. I know
instances in which a grizzly had some thirty bullets in its body ere it
was killed; but if hit at the right spot, it falls as easily as any
other animal. The she-bear gives birth, from November to January, to two
or four cubs, which soon follow it on its forays, and are trained to
hunt, which speedily develops the savage, cruel qualities of the young
monsters. It hunts both in the mountains and on the prairies: in the
former it lays in wait for the game, and darts down from the rocks on
its unhappy victim, while on the latter it will chase its terrified
quarry for miles, and mercilessly rend it when captured; for instance,
it seizes buffaloes, horses, wild cattle, &c., at full gallop by the
hocks, tears out the sinews, and in a second renders them incapable of
flying farther. When caught quite young and trained, these animals
become very tame, but they must never be trusted, as any negligence may
cost one's life, and I knew several instances on the frontier of men
being torn by such tamed bears, or at least losing an arm or a leg.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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