The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South AmericaKingston, William Henry Giles
History
The Western World: Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North; and South America
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Natural history -- North America; Natural history -- South America
The most dreaded inhabitant of the Rocky Mountains and their
neighbourhood, is the savage grizzly, frequently called by the hunters
Old Ephraim. Even the bravest hunter, when making his way through this
wild region, finds it necessary to call all his courage and hardihood to
his aid, when he sees one of these huge monsters sitting upon its
hind-legs prepared for a rush towards him, and uttering a loud, harsh
sound, like a person breathing quickly. Should he not wish for a
contest, his best plan is to face the monster boldly, moving slowly on,
but ever keeping his eyes fixed on the animal. The bear will, in most
cases, after watching him attentively for some time, turn round and
gallop off. If, however, he should lose his presence of mind, and
attempt to fly--or should he fail, when he fires, to shoot the monster
through the brain--in all probability he will quickly be torn to pieces.
The grizzly frequently attains a length of nine feet, and weighs from
700 to 800 pounds. His head, in proportion to his muzzle, is very
large. He has a long, narrow muzzle, somewhat flattened, with large,
powerful, canine teeth. His eyes are small, and deeply sunk in his
head. His tail is so short, that it is completely concealed by the
surrounding hair. He possesses remarkably long feet, which, in the
full-grown animal, are eighteen inches in length; and they are armed
with sharp and powerful claws five inches long, and so extremely sharp,
that they cut into the flesh like knives. He can also use them
separately like fingers, so that he can grasp a dry clod of earth and
crumble it to dust as a human being could do with his hand. He can
also, with them, dig into the ground; and when the weight of his body is
not too great, they enable him to climb trees, although not with the
speed of his black brother of the plains. As acorns form a portion of
his food, it is said that he will climb a tree and shake the boughs
vehemently to make them fall, when he descends and revels on the fruit
his ingenuity has thus obtained. The hunter who has to fly for his life
may however escape from a bear,--when the monster is filled out with
autumn food, and cannot manage to raise his huge body from the ground,--
by climbing a tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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