Humans and bears - Wild encounters

[brotherbear]

The Beast That Walks Like Man by Harold McCracken.
Returning to his home in the Sierras in the fall, Adams set out to capture a full-grown grizzly. A large and heavy log trap was built, and finally a monster bear walked into it: "the largest specimen of grizzly , perhaps, that was ever taken alive." The giant bear almost tore the trap apart, and Adams was compelled to stand by night and day for more than a week, using an iron bar and firebrands to keep him from escaping. It was nearly two months before the grizzly could be transferred into a movable cage and transported back to the camp. Adams named this one "Samson" and estimated his weight at over fifteen hundred pounds.

"I have looked on death in many forms, and trust that I can meet it whenever it comes, with stout heart and steady nerves," are the words with which James Capen Adams closed his personal story just prior to leaving San Francisco as an ill and badly scarred old man. "If I could choose, I would wish, since it was my destiny to become a mountaineer and grizzly bear hunter of California, to finish my career in the Sierra Nevada. There would I fain lay down with Lady, Ben, and Rambler at my side; there, surely, I could find rest through the long future, among the eternal rocks and evergreen pines."

Surely James Capen Adams fulfilled an extraordinary career and was certainly the most unusual bear hunter who ever lived. Reply