Generally the bear,
whether successful or unsuccessful in its raids on cattle and horses,
comes off unscathed from the struggle; but this is not always the case,
and it has much respect for the hoofs or horns of its should-be prey.
Some horses do not seem to know how to fight at all; but others are both
quick and vicious, and prove themselves very formidable foes, lashing
out behind, and striking with their fore-hoofs. I have elsewhere given
an instance of a stallion which beat off a bear, breaking its jaw.
Quite near my ranch, once, a cowboy in my employ found unmistakable
evidence of the discomfiture of a bear by a long-horned range cow. It
was in the early spring, and the cow with her new-born calf was in a
brush-bordered valley. The footprints in the damp soil were very plain,
and showed all that had happened. The bear had evidently come out of the
bushes with a rush, probably bent merely on seizing the calf; and had
slowed up when the cow instead of flying faced him. He had then begun
to walk round his expected dinner in a circle, the cow fronting him
and moving nervously back and forth, so that her sharp hoofs cut and
trampled the ground.
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