The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal
John Stuart Mill · en
Then he traveled on a short distance to another small rocky area.
Doubling in his tracks, he came back for one hundred feet or so in the
trail he had thus made. Working toward his first trail, he hid his
tracks by leaping among fallen timbers and bushes, and at last made a
leap into his first trail by the bowlder, where he made many tracks in
the snow. Along this old trail he traveled east again a short distance,
stepping precisely in his former footprints.
Out of this trail he leaped upon the top of a low, snowless bowlder on
the right, and from this upon another bowlder. He walked along a bare
fallen log. Here I must have searched more than two hours before
detecting two or three broken sticks, which gave me a clew to the
direction he had taken. From the log he walked upon a cross log and then
plunged through fifty or sixty feet of thicket which showed no trail.
From where he had emerged on the farther side of the thicket there was
little by which to trace him for the next quarter of a mile. He
zigzagged over fallen logs and leaped upon snowless bowlders until he
came to a tree leaning against a cliff. Up this tree he walked to a
ledge, where, fortunately, there was a little snow which recorded his
track. He followed the ledge to the top of the cliff and, leaving this,
ran for four or five miles. It took me twenty-four hours to unravel the
various tangles, and I finally gave up the idea of photographing him.
Long before I arrived at the top of the cliff I had concluded that I was
following a reasoning animal, one who might be more alert than I myself.
Though a grizzly has both speed and strength, he generally uses his wits
and thus obtains the desired end in the easiest way. Three or four
persons have told me that they have seen instances of a grizzly bear's
taking the part of an acrobat. The bear, by this means, endeavored to
attract the attention of cattle, with the idea of drawing them close and
seizing one of them. Among his pranks he turned an occasional
somersault, rolled over and over, and chased his tail.
A Utah grizzly killed about one thousand head of cattle in fifteen
years. During this time there was a large reward offered for his death.
Numerous attempts were made to capture him. Old hunters and trappers
tried with rifles and traps; expeditions of men, horses, and dogs
pursued him. All these years he lived on as usual in his home territory,
made a kill every few days, and was seen only two or three times.
Another grizzly, eluding pursuers, slaughtered live stock freely, and
managed to survive thirty-five years of concerted efforts to kill or
capture him. There was a rich reward on his head.