Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up

by George Bird Grinnell

"The men who were the leaders—the bear sharps—said the bears would come back that night, and that all hands ought to be within earshot of the bait by moonrise. So by dark all the horses were saddled, and about ten o'clock the head man called the outfit and led 'em down toward the bait. Before they got anywhere near it, they could hear the coyotes yelping on the hills all around the bait, and they knew that the bears were at work. If the bears had not been there the coyotes would be eating and not yelling. When they began to get near the place, they all stopped and tied up the chains and the tinklers on their spurs, so that these wouldn't be heard, and then waited for the moon to rise. After a while the moon came up over the mountains, and then very quietly they jogged along until they got between the bait and the ravine out of which the bears' trail had come the night before. Then, facing around they rode in a line toward the bait.

"The leading man had told 'em that those who couldn't rope—and that meant pretty much all the Americans in the bunch—had better stay behind and either try to catch the cubs, or else to pound 'em with their ropes and try to turn 'em. The leading man, Don Juan, was going to rope the bear, and he was to be supported by two other good ropers, both Californians.

"Well, according to the story, they got quite close to the bait before anything happened, and then an enormous bear stood up and looked at 'em. The man who told me said that she looked to him as tall as a pine tree; but I guess he wasn't used to seeing bears. At all events, even if she did have her cubs with her, she put out across the flat making for a big cañon that was quite a long way off.

"Don Juan and his partners kept after her and before very long caught up and Don Juan put his rope around her neck. But before he knew it she threw it off, and he had to slow down a little to gather his rope. Another man drew up to try to rope her, but the bear gave a snort that scared his horse so that it ran away. Finally the third man got up to her and, roping her with a big loop, caught her around the neck and behind her shoulder, and the rope stayed. She turned and charged on three legs, one of her fore legs being held close to her neck, but she never arrived, for Don Juan came up at that moment and caught both hind feet and in a minute she was handsomely stretched. Garcia, the man who had been on the frightened horse now came up. Taking his macate to hold his horse with, he went up to Don Juan, who in the meantime had ridden up within ten feet of the bear's hind legs, shortening his rope all the time, and so leaving about twenty feet behind the horn of the saddle. He passed this end to Garcia, who was now on foot, and Garcia, passing the end of the rope through the loop that was about the bear's neck and front foot, carried the end back to Don Juan and helped him hold the bear's hind legs, while he took up the slack of the rope that had been passed through the neck loop. When this was done and he got a pull on the rope, the bear's hind feet came close up to its neck, and it was in kind of a ball.

"They'd provided themselves with strings and ropes, and now that the bear was helpless her mouth was tied up, and then the three men, putting their ropes on her, dragged her to a tree, and, after a good deal of work and fussing around, got one hind foot on either side of the tree trunk, and tied the two together on the other side. The bear's hind feet were thus useless to her. She could walk around on her fore feet and dig holes in the ground with 'em, but it was impossible for her to get at the lashing which held her hind feet.

"All the other ropes were then taken off and she was left there for the night.

"Meantime, the cubs had been attacked by the Americans, and after a whole lot of excitement all the three were captured and tied up.

"The next morning they got fresh horses and all went back there and carried a beef hide with them. You heard Vicente say yesterday that if we had a beef hide we could take the bear to camp, didn't you, Jack?"

"Yes; I heard him say that, but I didn't know what he meant."

"Well," said Joe, "you'll know if you'll listen to this story.