general fremont found this powerful brute to be a gregarious and confiding creature, fond of his family and not given to disturbing those who did not disturb him. in his report to the government—1847—he tells of finding a large family of grizzly bears gathering acorns very much as the native indians gathered them, and this not far from a small mexican town. he says that riding at the head of his troops he saw, on reaching the brow of a little grassy hill set with oaks, a great commotion in the boughs of one of the largest trees, and, halting to cautiously reconnoiter, he noticed that there were grouped about the base of the tree and under its wide boughs, several huge grizzlies, employed in gathering and eating the acorns which the baby grizzlies threw down from the thick branches overhead. more than this, he reports that the baby bears, on seeing him, became frightened, and attempted to descend to the ground and run away, but the older bears, which had not yet discovered the explorers, beat the young ones and drove them back up the tree, and compelled them to go on with their work, as if they had been children.
in the early ’50s, i, myself, saw the grizzlies feeding together in numbers under the trees, far up the sacramento valley, as tranquilly as a flock of sheep. a serene, dignified and very decent old beast was the full-grown grizzly as fremont and others found him here at home. this king of the continent, who is quietly abdicating his throne, has never been understood. the grizzly was not only every inch a king, but he had, in his undisputed dominion, a pretty fair sense of justice. he was never a roaring lion. he was never a man-eater. he is indebted for his character for ferocity almost entirely to tradition, but, in some degree, to the female bear when seeking to protect her young. of course, the grizzlies are good fighters, when forced to it; but as for lying in wait for anyone, like the lion, or creeping, cat-like, as the tiger does, into camp to carry off someone for supper, such a thing was never heard of in connection with the grizzly.
the grizzly went out as the american rifle came in. i do not think he retreated. he was a lover of home and family, and so fell where he was born. for he is still found here and there, all up and down the land, as the indian is still found, but he is no longer the majestic and serene king of the world. his whole life has been disturbed, broken up; and his temper ruined. he is a cattle thief now, and even a sheep thief. in old age, he keeps close to his canyon by day, deep in the impenetrable chaparral, and at night shuffles down hill to some hog-pen, perfectly careless of dogs or shots, and, tearing out a whole side of the pen, feeds his fill on the inmates.
one of the interior counties kept a standing reward for the capture of an old grizzly of this character for several years. but he defied everything and he escaped everything but old age. some hunters finally crept in to where the old king lay, nearly blind and dying of old age, and dispatched him with a volley from several winchester rifles. it was found that he was almost toothless, his paws had been terribly mutilated by numerous steel traps, and it is said that his kingly old carcass had received nearly lead enough to sink a small ship. there were no means of ascertaining his exact weight, but it was claimed that skin, bone and bullets, as he was found, he would have weighed well nigh a ton.
