SOMETHING ABOUT BEARS
As they began to skin the bear, Jack said, "I want to find out why
I didn't kill this bear, Hugh; I thought I held all right on it,
and yet my shot never seemed to faze her."
"Well, I'll tell you what I think, son. I noticed where she seemed
to snap at where you hit her, and I reckon you forgot you were
shooting down hill, and shot a little high, and perhaps hit a
little far back. Now, when we get her hide off we'll see."
Jack thought for a moment, and then said, "Hugh, I bet you're
right. She made a kind of a step to one side just as I was pulling
the trigger, and I never thought one thing about holding low
because we were above her on the hillside. I guess if we open her
we'll find that that shot of mine went nearer her liver than it did
her heart."
"Well," said Hugh, "I wouldn't be surprised. Of course the liver
is a pretty deadly shot after a while, but it isn't so good as the
heart, and, as I've told you I guess more than forty times, it's
always better to shoot under than over."
"Well," said Jack, "that was a pretty bad blunder. I feel pretty
badly about that. I ought to have known better than to have done
such a thing. I wonder if Joe shot over, too. I hope he'll get his
bear, so that we can know about it."
The work of skinning the bear was long and slow, and Hugh said,
when they drew the skin out from under the animal, "Now we've got
it, it ain't worth anything."
It was found that Jack's ball had struck the bear much too far
back, and so that it passed just under the spine, yet not quite
high enough to cut the great vein that passes along close beneath
the vertebrae. The bear might have lived a number of days, or even
have recovered, with this shot alone. The heavy ball from Hugh's
rifle had struck her in the back of the neck, and had smashed two
of the vertebrae, and lay there flattened in the muscles of the
neck. As Jack looked at the wound made by Hugh's ball, and then cut
the flattened lead out and held it in his hand, he said, "Well,
Hugh, it's mighty sure that you didn't get excited, anyhow. That
was an awful good shot, even if it was close, and a mighty hard
shot when you think how fast the bear was coming."
"Yes," said Hugh, "of course in a case like that a man's got to
figure close. I took the chance of striking her on the top of the
head, or breaking her neck, or breaking her back right between the
shoulders; but I hit just the place I wanted to hit. I don't hear
anything of Joe," he went on; "let's walk over to that ridge and
see if we can see him. I'd like to see the trail left by that bear,
and maybe call Joe back if he's going too far."
They walked quickly over to the ridge, and had just reached its
top when they saw, a little way below them, the figure of Joe
bending over something which they knew must be the bear, and going
to him they found that he had nearly finished skinning it; and a
few minutes help by Hugh and Jack completed the job.
"That looks like good meat, Hugh," said Jack. "Is it worth while
taking any of it along?"
"Do as you like," said Hugh. "I don't go much on bear meat, myself.
I've had to eat it, but then I've had to eat lots of other things
that I didn't hanker after. If you like, we can take those hams
along. The horse will have all he can carry, with the sheep if any
of it is worth taking, and the bear skins. They've mauled that
animal a whole lot, I reckon, and it may not be fit to carry to
camp." Folding up the little bear skin, Joe put it on his back,
while Hugh cut off the hams of the bear, which he said was a
yearling, and he and Jack each taking one, they started back to
look at the sheep. This was found in bad shape, but the greater
part of both hams was uninjured, and cutting these off, and cutting
away the part where the bears had gnawed, they were ready to start
on their return.
"Jack," said Hugh, "do you suppose you can carry both of these
little bear hams? If you can, I'll take both the sheep hams, and
then come back here and get the bear skin. But one of you boys'll
have to come back to carry my rifle, for I reckon I can't tote both
the skin and the gun, at least not without a rope to tie the skin
up with."
"I guess we've got to make two trips anyhow," said Jack, "there's
too much to carry, and anyhow it isn't far."
"No," said Hugh, "it isn't far." The two trips were made, and all
the things carried to the edge of the cliff, and then Hugh said:
"Now, I'll go and get the horse. I'd rather get him myself, for the
smell of the bears'll maybe scare him, and I may have to fool with
him a little. You boys get these things down; get the bear skins
down first, and then the meat. We're likely to have some trouble
packing that horse. I don't think he'll mind the meat, but the
smell of the bear is likely to scare him."
It proved as Hugh had said, the dun made a great fuss when
approaching the pile which constituted the hunters' spoils, and
after he was close to it it was necessary for Hugh to take off his
coat and put it over the animal's head, and tie it there; and then
Joe held the horse's rope, while Hugh and Jack packed the load.
After the ropes were all tied, Hugh said.
"Now boys, you want, both of you, to get hold of that rope, for I
expect when I get this blind off the horse he'll buck plenty, and
if he bucks down the hill, he's likely to turn a somersault, and
roll, and break his neck before he stops rolling."
The boys, having put their guns well up above the horse on the
hillside, took the rope, prepared for anything. As Hugh had said,
when the coat was taken from the horse's head he partly turned his
head, and giving a frightened snort at the load on his back, began
to buck. If he had gotten his head down the hill he would certainly
have fallen, but the boys, and with them Hugh, kept his head from
turning down the slope, and he soon tired of bucking, and though
once or twice he staggered as if about to fall over, they managed
to keep him on his feet. Though he bucked no more that day, he was
still much alarmed by what he was carrying, and they were obliged
to handle him with great discretion while going down some of the
steep places; for, as the load pressed forward toward his neck he
would snort loudly, and roll his eyes, as if he felt that he must
do something to get rid of the terrifying burden.
They reached camp just before dark, and all were glad to get there.
When they stopped before the lodge, Hugh again put his coat over
the horse's head until he was unpacked and unsaddled, and when it
was taken off, the dun threw head and tail into the air and trotted
out to the other horses, looking back and snorting fiercely,
showing that his alarm was not yet over.
"Well," said Hugh, "I believe if I had that job to do over again
I'd rather carry the stuff down on my own back than fool with that
horse. If I'd known we were going to have bear skins to pack, I
wouldn't have taken the horse along."
Before doing anything else, Hugh sent the two boys with the axe
down into the timber, and told them to get a slender pole, like a
lodge pole, and trim it, and bring it up to him. Then resting the
ends of the pole on the branches of two trees, about six feet from
the ground, he spread the bear hides over it.
After supper that night the talk turned to what they had seen and
done that day, and from that to bears. Jack had many questions to
ask about them, some of which Hugh could not answer.
"I thought bears almost always had two cubs," said Jack; "but this
one only had one, and that you say is a yearling."
"Well," said Hugh, "they do 'most always have two cubs, and
sometimes three, and sometimes four. I've heard of five, but I
never saw more than four, and those only once. I expect this old
bear started in with two cubs, but that something happened to one
of them. You see, when cubs first come out they are pretty small,
and lots of things are likely to happen to them. This old she-bear
very likely lost one of her cubs when it was a little one. You
notice, the one we killed is pretty good size for a yearling, and
fat and in good order. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd had all his
mother's milk now for over a year, and that's maybe what makes him
so fat."
"When are the cubs born?" asked Jack.
"Most people think they're born about the middle of the winter,"
said Hugh. "I know the Indians think that, and I've had one or
two men tell me that they've come across bear dens in winter, and
killed the mother, and found the cubs in there mighty small--no
bigger than a young pup. Anyhow, by the time they get to travelling
round, in May and June, they're still right small, not near so big
as old Shep, down at the ranch. They say that if you catch the
black-bear cubs when they're right small, they make nice pets for
a while; but I never heard of anybody that got very friendly with
young grizzlies.
"I remember once, years ago, Joe Kipp had a couple on the
Blackfoot Reservation, that one of the Indians had caught and
brought in when they were right small. Joe put collars on them, and
then forgot to take them off, and long toward the end of the summer
both bears were like to choke to death, the collars were getting so
small for them. I helped Joe and Hi Upham take 'em off, one day,
and 'twas a regular circus. Those little cubs--they weren't more'n
a foot or fifteen inches high--were awful mean, and regularly on
the fight. They were hard to catch, too, and if you did get hold of
them they'd turn quick as a wink and bite or scratch you. Finally,
we cornered one of 'em, and Joe grabbed it by the ears and held it
between his legs, while Hi held the forepaws and I loosened the
collar; but it came pretty near scratching Joe's overalls to pieces
with its hind feet. We did the same thing with the other one. I
tell you they were mean little cusses.
"The Indians don't like bears much; ask Joe," continued Hugh.
"No," said Joe, "Indians don't like bears. Afraid of 'em. Bears
are powerful medicine, you know, and some people won't speak about
a bear, or won't sit down on a bear skin, and of course they
won't eat bear meat. There's lots of stories about bears among
the Piegans. In old times, you know, bears used to kill lots of
Indians; and the Indians had only stone arrows, and couldn't do
anything. If a bear took after a man, maybe the man would shoot
three or four arrows into him, and they wouldn't much more than go
through his hide, and just make him madder and madder all the time,
and at last he'd just catch the man and tear him to pieces. One
story my grandfather told me a long time ago, and I heard my uncle
tell it again last winter. Would you like to hear it, Jack?"