In the spring and early summer of 1888, the bears killed no cattle near
my ranch; but in the late summer and early fall of that year a big bear,
which we well knew by its tracks, suddenly took to cattle-killing. This
was a brute which had its headquarters on some very large brush bottoms
a dozen miles below my ranch house, and which ranged to and fro across
the broken country flanking the river on each side. It began just before
berry time, but continued its career of destruction long after the wild
plums and even buffalo berries had ripened. I think that what started it
was a feast on a cow which had mired and died in the bed of the creek;
at least it was not until after we found that it had been feeding at
the carcass and had eaten every scrap, that we discovered traces of
its ravages among the livestock. It seemed to attack the animals wholly
regardless of their size and strength; its victims including a large
bull and a beef steer, as well as cows, yearlings, and gaunt, weak
trail "doughgies," which had been brought in very late by a Texas
cow-outfit--for that year several herds were driven up from the
overstocked, eaten-out, and drought-stricken ranges of the far south.
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