Grizzly bear at home in the wooded wilderness of famous Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Publication

Grizzly bear at home in the wooded wilderness of famous Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Description

It is one of the original proprietors of the Park that you meet here in this opening of the woods, not far from the Fountain Hotel in the Lower Geyser Basin. This Grizzly, (Ursus horribilis, naturalists call him) is one of the finest wild beasts in the country, and his family is not near extinction like that of the buffalo-his cousins are numerous through this land of the Rockies. This particular specimen is about six feet long and his shaggy, reddish brown pelt would be a prize for any sportsman, but no sportsman wil ever own it. Special acts of Congress protect this handsome fellow and his wild neighbors from any molestation by hunters, and a share of the duties of the U.S. Cavalry stationed near here at Fort Yellowstone is to see that would-be poachers keep at a safe distance from the Park reservation. the beasts have, it must be confessed, grown somewhat degenerate in these days. In old times such bears were fully equal to killing even such big game as the bison (buffalo) but nowadays this fellow and his family condescend to lunch on mice and even to prowl about the garbage heaps behind the hotels in most undignified fashion. Dignity is not outgrown, however; you would find if you ventured too near that heavy muzzle that its owner has still terrific power in jaws and claws. A she-bear with young cubs is an especially dangerous creature to meet in these woods. From Notes of Travel, No.13, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.