Ursus Ferox. Lewis and Clarke.
A native also of the northern division of America, and more particularly of that extensive tract of country which constitutes the newly erected State of Missouri, the Grizzly Bear differs in many striking points, both of character and habits, from the subject of the preceding article, as well as from every other animal of the very natural group of which he forms part. By his elongated, narrowed, and flattened muzzle, added to the slight elevation of his forehead, he is closely connected with the Black Bear of America, and as remarkably distinguished from the common Brown Bear of Europe, and from the White Bear of the polar regions, which last, in[122] size and general form, offers perhaps the nearest approximation to the present species. But his enormous magnitude, which may be stated as averaging twice the bulk of the Black Bear; the greatly increased size and power of his canine teeth; and, above all, the excessive length of his talons, on the fore feet especially, afford characteristic differences so obvious and so essential, that it is difficult to conceive how they could have been so long overlooked by naturalists as well as travellers, who have all, until within little more than twenty years of the present time, passed him over without even a casual hint that he presented any claims to be considered as distinct from the common species of his country.
His hair, generally speaking, is longer, finer, and more abundant than that of the Black Bear, and varies in colour to an almost indefinite extent, passing through all the intermediate shades between a light gray and a black brown. The brown tinge is, however, the most common; and it is always more or less grizzled either by the intermixture of grayish hairs, or by the brown hairs being tipped with gray. The hair of the legs and feet is darker and coarser, and diminishes in length as it descends; on the muzzle it becomes remarkably pale, and is so much shortened as to give to the animal an appearance of baldness. His eyes are very small and hardly at all prominent; and the line of the profile is consequently nearly straight. His tail is scarcely visible, being almost entirely concealed by the long hairs which surround it. Of the great size of his feet and talons, some judgment may be formed from the measurements given by Captains Lewis and Clarke, the first travellers by whom the Grizzly Bear was accurately described.[123] These gentlemen inform us that the breadth of the fore foot in one of the individuals observed by them exceeded nine inches, while the length of his hind foot, exclusive of the talons, was eleven inches and three quarters, and its breadth seven inches. The claws of the fore feet of another specimen measured more than six inches. The latter are considerably longer and less curved than those of the hind feet, and do not narrow in a lateral direction as they approach their extremity, but diminish only from beneath: the point is consequently formed by the shelving of the inferior surface alone, their breadth remaining the same throughout the whole of their enormous length, and their power being proportionally increased; an admirable provision for enabling the animal to exercise to the fullest extent his propensity for digging up the ground, either in search of food or for other purposes. It appears, however, on the other hand, to unfit him for climbing trees, which he never attempts; and this remarkable circumstance in his habits affords a striking distinction between him and all the other Bears, which are essentially climbers.
Of all the quadrupeds which inhabit the northern regions of the American continent, the Grizzly Bear is unquestionably the most formidable and the most dreaded. Superior to the rest of his tribe, not excepting even the polar species, in bulk, in power, in agility, and in the ferocity of his disposition, it is not to be wondered at that he should be regarded by the native Indians with an almost superstitious terror, and that some portion of this feeling should have been communicated even to the civilized travellers, who have occasionally met with him in the wild and desolate regions which are subject to his devastations. In the Journals of some of these[124] travellers we find recorded such astonishing instances of his strength, ferocity, and extraordinary tenacity of life as would indeed amaze us, were we not aware how much the human mind is prone, under certain circumstances, to fall into exaggeration, in many cases most certainly unintentional. Making, however, all due allowances for the existence of this very natural feeling, we are bound to acknowledge that there are few animals who can compete with this terrible beast; and that to be made the object of his pursuit is an occurrence well calculated to alarm the stoutest heart, even when provided with the most certain and deadly weapons of human invention, guided by the most experienced eye, and directed by the steadiest hand.
This tremendous animal appears to be most commonly found in the neighbourhood of the Rocky Mountains, especially on the well wooded plains which skirt the eastern declivity of that lofty and extensive range, among thick copses of brush and underwood, and on the banks of the water-courses which descend in innumerable petty streams from their sources in the hills. In these wild solitudes, rarely trodden by the foot of civilized man, and visited only by the savage Indians of the neighbouring tribes, who have not yet learned to bow the neck beneath the yoke of the exterminating conqueror, he reigns the almost undisputed tyrant of the forest. Few among the animals which share with him his barbarous habitation are fleet enough to escape him in the chase; and none, when fairly placed within his reach, are powerful enough to withstand his overwhelming force. Even the sturdy and formidable Bison, the wild bull of North America, is incapable of offering any effectual resistance to the furious impetuosity of his attack; and[125] an illustration of the extent of his muscular power is afforded by the fact that after having destroyed his victim, he will drag its ponderous carcase to some convenient spot, where he will dig a pit for its reception, and deposit it for a season, returning to his feast from time to time as the calls of hunger may dictate, until his store is exhausted and he is again reduced to the necessity of looking abroad for a fresh supply.
But although endowed with so strong a propensity for animal food, as well as with the power to gratify the appetite thus grafted in his very nature, he is not, like the more perfect of the carnivorous tribe, left entirely dependent upon that which, in the climate in which he has been placed, must of necessity be a precarious, and frequently even an impossible, source of subsistence. Of a more fierce and sanguinary temper than the other bears, he does not hesitate to attack whatever living creature may fall in his way, and man himself seems to inspire him with little dread: but in the absence of his favourite food, he makes a less savoury, but equally congenial, meal of vegetable substances, of fruits, or more commonly of roots, the latter of which he digs up with the greatest facility with his enormous claws; and in some parts of the country these more simple productions form almost his sole subsistence. On the quality of his food depends much of the ferocity of his temper; for it appears that the bears of the western side of the Rocky Mountains, who live almost entirely upon vegetables, are of a much less fierce and savage disposition than their fellows of the eastern side, where animal food is more abundant and more easily procured.
Next to his great size and excessive ferocity, one of[126] the most striking peculiarities of this animal is his extreme tenacity of life. For the instances of this we are indebted almost wholly to the narrative of the Travels of Captains Lewis and Clarke, whose statements are no doubt founded in truth, although it may be suspected that they require to be received with some grains at least of allowance. According to these gentlemen one bear which had received five shots in his lungs, and five other wounds in various parts of his body, swam a considerable distance to a sand bank in the river, and survived more than twenty minutes; another that had been shot through the centre of the lungs, pursued at full speed the man by whom the wound was inflicted for half a mile, then returned more than twice that distance, dug himself a bed two feet deep and five feet long, and was perfectly alive two hours after he received the wound; and a third, although actually shot through the heart, ran at his usual pace nearly a quarter of a mile before he fell. There is no chance, they add, of killing him by a single shot, unless the ball goes directly through the brain; a single hunter runs consequently no little risk in venturing to attack an animal upon whom the most dangerous wounds, if not instantaneously fatal, produce no obvious immediate effects.
Notwithstanding the horror with which the natives regard this animal, it is said that they sometimes succeed in rendering him tame; and a whimsical story is told by the late Governor Clinton, on the authority of an Indian trader, of an insult offered to a domesticated bear of this species by an Indian of a different tribe from that to which the master of the bear belonged, being regarded as a national affront, and producing a[127] war between the two tribes. The same veracious trader, it should be added, did not scruple to affirm that the Grizzly Bear had actually been seen fourteen feet long: the greatest measurement given on any credible authority being somewhat less than nine feet. It may, however, well be doubted whether the Grizzly Bear is capable of being domesticated; for it would appear that all the known attempts that have hitherto been made to render him docile and obedient have completely failed. In the narrative of Major Long’s expedition, Mr. Say has given some particulars relative to the manners of a half-grown individual which was kept chained in the yard of one of the stations of the Missouri Fur Company; but which, though far from having attained his full strength, was by no means trusted even by those who were most familiar with him. They occasionally ventured to play with him; but this was always done with caution and reserve; and when, as was sometimes the case, he chanced to break loose from his confinement, the whole establishment was thrown into a state of confusion and alarm. The same gentleman also gives the history of two individuals which were presented when very young to the Philadelphia Museum, where they were kept for several years confined in a strong cage; until at length their strength and ferocity, which no kind of treatment appeared capable of subduing, had reached such a pitch that it was found absolutely necessary to destroy them.
In no respect has the subject of the present notice, whose portrait admirably illustrates the peculiarities of his species, degenerated from the race of which he appears to be the sole representative in Europe. He[128] was presented to his late majesty, more than seventeen years ago, by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and has long been the oldest inhabitant of the Tower Menagerie. The name of Martin, which was originally bestowed upon him, in imitation probably of that of the most celebrated bear ever exhibited in Europe, has consequently been of late years generally preceded by the epithet of antiquity, and Old Martin has become under that title almost as well known as his famous namesake. His size is far superior to that of any other bear that has ever been seen in this quarter of the globe; and his ferocity, in spite of the length of time during which he has been a prisoner, and of all the attempts that have been made to conciliate him, still continues undiminished. He does not offer the slightest encouragement to familiarity on the part of his keepers, but treats them with as much distance as the most perfect strangers; and although he will sometimes appear playful and good tempered, yet they know him too well to trust themselves within his clutch.