A Book of the United States. Various
Читать онлайн книгу.
home, about an hour before dusk, he perceived a very large bear crossing his path, on which he instantly fired, and the bear fell, but immediately recovering his legs, made for a deep ravine a short way onwards. Here he tracked him awhile by the blood, but night coming on, and expecting to find him dead in the morning, he returned home. A little before daybreak the next morning, taking a pitchfork and hatchet, and his son, a boy of ten or eleven years of age, with him, he proceeded to the place in quest of the animal. The glen or ravine into which he had disappeared the evening before, was eighty or ninety feet from the top of the bank to the brook below; down this precipice a stream of three or four yards in breadth is pitched in one unbroken sheet, and, forming a circular basin or pool, winds away among the thick underwood.
‘After reconnoitering every probable place of retreat, he at length discovered the bear, who had made his way up the other side of the ravine, as far us the rocks would admit, and sat under a projecting cliff, steadfastly eyeing the motions of his enemy. Mayborne, desiring his boy to remain where he was, took the pitchfork, and, descending to the bottom, determined from necessity to attack him from below. The bear kept his position until the man approached within six or seven feet, when on the instant, instead of being able to make a stab with the pitchfork, he found himself grappled by the bear, and both together rolled towards the pond, at least twenty or twenty-five feet, the bear biting on his left arm, and hugging him almost to suffocation. By great exertion he thrust his right arm partly down his throat, and in that manner endeavored to strangle him, but was once more hurled headlong down through the bushes, a greater distance than before, into the water. Here, finding the bear gaining on him, he made one desperate effort, and drew the animal’s head partly under water, and repeating his exertions, at last weakened him so much, that calling to his boy, who stood on the other side, in a state little short of distraction for the fate of his father, to bring him the hatchet, he sunk the edge of it by repeated blows into the brain of the bear. This man, although robust and muscular, was scarcely able to crawl home, where he lay for nearly three weeks, the flesh of his arm being much crushed, and his breast severely mangled. The bear weighed upwards of four hundred pounds.’
Grisly Bear.—This animal, like the species just described, inhabits the northern part of America; but, unlike him, he is, perhaps, the most formidable of all bears in magnitude and ferocity. He averages twice the bulk of the black bear, to which, however, he bears some resemblance in his slightly elevated forehead, and narrow, flattened, elongated muzzle. His canine teeth are of great size and power. The feet are enormously large; the breadth of the fore foot exceeding nine inches, and the length of the hind foot exclusive of the talons, being eleven inches and three quarters, and its breadth seven inches. The talons sometimes measure more than six inches. He is, accordingly, admirably adapted for digging up the ground, but is unable to climb trees, in which latter respect he differs wholly from every other species. The color of his hair varies to almost an indefinite extent, between all the intermediate shades of a light gray and a black brown; the latter tinge, however, being that which predominates. It is always, in some degree, grizzled, by intermixture of grayish hairs, only the brown hairs being tipped with gray. The hair itself is, in general, longer, finer, and more exuberant than that of the black bear.
The neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains is one of the principal haunts of this animal. There, amidst wooded plains, and tangled copses of bough and underwood, he reigns as much the monarch as the lion is of the sandy wastes of Africa. Even the bison cannot withstand his attack. Such is his muscular strength, that he will drag the ponderous carcass of the animal to a convenient spot, where he digs a pit for its reception. The Indians regard him with the utmost terror. His extreme tenacity of life renders him still more dangerous; for he can endure repeated wounds which would be instantaneously mortal to other beasts, and, in that state, can rapidly pursue his enemy. So that the hunter who fails to shoot him through the brain, is placed in a most perilous situation.
One evening, the men in the hindmost of one of Lewis and Clark’s canoes, perceived one of these bears lying in the open ground about three hundred paces from the river; and six of them, who were all good hunters, went to attack him. Concealing themselves by a small eminence, they were able to approach within forty paces unperceived; four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which passed directly through the lungs. The bear sprang up and ran furiously with open mouth upon them; two of the hunters, who had reserved their fire, gave him two additional wounds, and one breaking his shoulder-blade, somewhat retarded his motions. Before they could again load their guns, he came so close on them, that they were obliged to run towards the river, and before they had gained it, the bear had almost overtaken them. Two men jumped into the canoe; the other four separated, and concealing themselves among the willows, fired as fast as they could load their pieces. Several times the bear was struck, but each shot seemed only to direct his fury towards the hunter; at last he pursued them so closely, that they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped from a perpendicular bank twenty feet high into the river. The bear sprang after them, and was very near the hindmost man, when one of the hunters on the shore shot him through the head and finally killed him. When they dragged him on shore, they found that eight balls had passed through his body in different directions.
On another occasion, the same enterprising travellers met with the largest bear of this species they had ever seen; when they fired he did not attempt to attack, but fled with a tremendous roar, and such was his tenacity of life, that although five balls had passed through the lungs, and five other wounds were inflicted, he swam more than half across the river to a sand-bar, and survived more than twenty minutes.
Mr. John Dougherty, a very experienced and respectable hunter, who accompanied Major Long’s party during their expedition to the Rocky Mountains, several times very narrowly escaped from the grizzly bear. Once, while hunting with another person on one of the upper tributaries of the Missouri, he heard the report of his companion’s rifle, and when he looked round, beheld him at a short distance endeavoring to escape from one of these bears, which he had wounded as it was coming towards him. Dougherty, forgetful of every thing but the preservation of his friend, hastened to call off the attention of the bear, and arrived in rifle shot distance just in time to effect his generous purpose. He discharged his ball at the animal, and was obliged in his turn to fly; his friend relieved from immediate danger, prepared for another attack by charging his rifle, with which he again wounded the bear, and saved Mr. D. from further peril. Neither received any injury from this encounter, in which the bear was at length killed.
The Raccoon.—This animal continues to be frequently found even in the populous parts of the United States. Occasionally their numbers are so much increased, as to render them very troublesome to the farmers in the low and wooded parts of Maryland, bordering on the Chesapeak Bay. Being peculiarly fond of sweet substances, they are sometimes destructive to plantations of sugar-cane, and of Indian corn. While the ear of this corn is still young and tender, it is very sweet, and at that time troops of raccoons frequently enter fields of maize, and in a single night commit the most extensive depredations.
Raccoon.
The size of the raccoon varies with the age and sex of the individual. When full grown, the male is about a foot in length, or a few inches longer; the highest part of the back is about a foot from the ground, whilst the highest part of the shoulder is ten inches. The head is about five inches, and the tail rather more than eight. The general color of the body is a blackish gray, which is paler on the under part. The feet have five toes each, terminated by strong curved and pointed claws; and each foot is furnished with five thick and very elastic tubercles beneath. The fur of the raccoon forms an article of considerable value in commerce, as it is extensively used in the manufacture of hats.
‘The raccoon,’ says Godman, ‘is an excellent climber, and his strong sharp claws effectually secure him from being shaken off the branches of trees. In fact, so tenaciously does this animal hold to any surface upon which it can make an impression with its claws, that it requires a considerable exertion of a man’s strength to drag him off; and as long as even a single foot remains attached, he continues to cling with great force. I have had frequent occasion to pull a raccoon from the top of a board fence, where there was no projection which he could seize by; yet, such was the