Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1Baker, Samuel White, Sir
History
Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa and America — Volume 1
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Animal behavior; Hunting
This weight is equivalent to a large-sized English cart-horse. I have
seen one of the skins procured by Mr. Lamont, and I can readily
appreciate his account of the weight. I have also seen a skin of a
grizzly bear killed at Alaska by Sir Thomas Hesketh; this was cured by
Mr. Rowland Ward, who showed it to me at his establishment, 160
Piccadilly, and it was very little inferior to the skin of the polar
bear. I quite believe the accounts I have received in California are
correct, and that the grizzly may sometimes exceed 1400 lbs. in weight.
There is a considerable difference in size between the male and female,
the former being superior. Like all other animals, the mother is
particularly attached to her young, and when in company with them she is
more than ordinarily ferocious, as she appears to suspect every stranger
of some hostile intentions towards her offspring.
The increase of population in many countries has resulted in the
destruction of all animals that were considered dangerous to man; thus
the wolf and the bear have both disappeared from Great Britain, and they
have become scarce in France.
Thirty-five years ago, I was in a wild portion of the Pyrenees, in the
hope of finding bears at the first snows of winter, when by extreme bad
luck a fall took place so suddenly and severe that a pass was blocked,
which prevented my arrival at a narrow valley, between the lofty
mountains named Tram-Saig. I had been assured that the bears would
hybernate at the commencement of winter, and that they could only be
found at the season when the first snow-fall would expose their tracks.
On the following day I managed to get through the pass, and to my
intense disgust, upon arrival, I found that I was a day too late, as the
Maire, who was a great chasseur, had killed two bears, a mother and
half-grown young one, on the preceding day, thus verifying the
information I had received.
I saw the freshly killed skins pegged out to dry, and a few days later I
ate a portion of the paws in an excellent stew when dining with the
Prefect of Bagneres-de-Bigorre, to whom they were forwarded as an
esteemed present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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