A bull moose is even more formidable,being able to strike the most lightning-like blows with his terrible forefeet,his true weapons of defense.I doubt if any beast of prey would rush in on one of these woodland giants,when his horns were grown,and if he was on his guard and bent on fight.Nevertheless,the moose sometimes fall victims to the uncouth prowess of the grisly,in the thick wet forests of the high northern Rockies,where both beasts dwell.An old hunter who a dozen years ago wintered at Jackson Lake,in northwestern Wyoming,told me that when the snows got deep on the mountains the moose came down and took up their abode near the lake,on its western side.
Nothing molested them during the winter.Early in the spring a grisly came out of its den,and he found its tracks in many places,as it roamed restlessly about,evidently very hungry.Finding little to eat in the bleak,snow-drifted woods,it soon began to depredate on the moose,and killed two or three,generally by lying in wait and dashing out on them as they passed near its lurking-place.Even the bulls were at that season weak,and of course hornless,with small desire to fight;and in each case the rush of the great bear--doubtless made with the ferocity and speed which so often belie the seeming awkwardness of the animal--bore down the startled victim,taken utterly unawares before it had a chance to defend itself.In one case the bear had missed its spring;the moose going off,for a few rods,with huge jumps,and then settling down into its characteristic trot.
The old hunter who followed the tracks said he would never have deemed it possible for any animal to make such strides while in a trot.
Nevertheless,the grisly is only occasionally,not normally,a formidable predatory beast,a killer of cattle and of large game.
Although capable of far swifter movement than is promised by his frame of seemingly clumsy strength,and in spite of his power of charging with astonishing suddenness and speed,he yet lacks altogether the supple agility of such finished destroyers as the cougar and the wolf;and for the absence of this agility no amount of mere huge muscle can atone.He is more apt to feast on animals which have met their death by accident,or which have been killed by other beasts or by man,than to do his own killing.He is a very foul feeder,with a strong relish for carrion,and possesses a grewsome and cannibal fondness for the flesh of his own kind;a bear carcass will toll a brother bear to the ambushed hunter better than almost any other bait,unless it is the carcass of a horse.
Nor do these big bears always content themselves merely with the carcasses of their brethren.A black bear would have a poor chance if in the clutches of a large,hungry grisly;and an old male will kill and eat a cub,especially if he finds it at a disadvantage.A rather remarkable instance of this occurred in the Yellowstone National Park,in the spring of 1891.The incident is related in the following letter written to Mr.William Hallett Phillips,of Washington,by another friend,Mr.Elwood Hofer.Hofer is an old mountain-man;I have hunted with him myself,and know his statements to be trustworthy.He was,at the time,at work in the Park getting animals for the National Museum at Washington,and was staying at Yancey's "hotel"near Tower Falls,His letter which was dated June 21st,1891,runs in part as follows:
"I had a splendid Grizzly or Roachback cub and was going to send him into the Springs next morning the team was here.I heard a racket outside,went out,and found him dead.An old bear that made a 91/2inch track had killed and partly eaten him.Last night another one came,one that made a 81/2inch track,and broke Yancy up in the milk business.You know how the cabins stand here.There is a hitching post between the saloon and old house,the little bear was killed there.In a creek close by was a milk house,last night another bear came there and smashed the whole thing up,leaving nothing but a few flattened buckets and pans and boards.I was sleeping in the old cabin,I heard the tin ware rattle but thought it was all right,supposed it was cows or horses about.I don't care about the milk but the damn cuss dug up the remains of the cub I had buried in the old ditch,he visited the old meat house but found nothing.Bear are very thick in this part of the Park,and are getting very fresh.I sent in the game to Capt.Anderson,hear its doing well."Grislies are fond of fish;and on the Pacific slope,where the salmon run,they,like so many other beasts,travel many scores of miles and crowd down to the rivers to gorge themselves upon the fish which are thrown up on the banks.Wading into the water a bear will knock out the salmon right and left when they are running thick.
