Survival Skills of Bears

[brotherbear]

Here is yet another account of a grizzly administering a "bear hug" ... from Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers.
The next moment a growl, so deep and fierce that it echoed through the cave, startled me to my feet; and I turned to find myself closely confronted by an enormous grizzly bear, the most fearful animal of the American wilds. How ferociously his eyes glared on me from under his shaggy brows, as he opened them from the new-fallen sleep, which the warm beams of my fire had dispelled, and how convulsively his huge jaws worked and quivered in eager longing to devour me! Ere I had time to snatch the revolver from my belt the gigantic beast rose toweringly above me, and opening his enormous paws, pressed me to him in close embrace - so close that my arms were pinned to my sides, and my very bones seemed to crack in that viselike hug. I believe I screamed with the sudden agony, but the sound was lost in the deep-mouthed growls, like muttering thunder, that filled the cave.

Weak and exhausted as I was, I felt myself unequal to cope with the powerful beast in whose grasp I was; but even if life were of little worth, to a solitary such as I, this mode of death was so horrible, that it nerved me to efforts beyond my ordinary strength, and somehow my hand managed to creep up towards my belt. But ere I could reach the weapon I sought, a movement of the bear had loosened it, and firing a single barrel, it fell to the ground among our feet. The report echoing through the cave alarmed my adversary; and with a more threatening growl, he clasped me closer, and for the first time his claws penetrated my clothes, inflicting terrible wounds.

But my hand had met an unexpected friend in my knife, which I had unwittingly thrust into my belt, and with it I inflicted several random stabs on my antagonist. This, however, seemed only to add to my own suffering; for, maddened by the pain, the bear threw himself upon the ground and rolled over me in his agony, while his huge teeth munched and tore at the blanket which a fortunate fit of toothache had made me wrap round my head. Not that, nor any other earthly matter seemed likely to concern me long, for the strength of excitement was already passing, a srange murmur was mingling in my ears with the fierce growls of my enemy; and the pain of his claws changed into a vague yet universal agony as unconsciousness and life were being pressed out in the terrible hug.

Suddenly a sound echoed through the cave, so sharp that it reached even my failing faculties, and appeared to thrill likewise on the nerves of my foe, to judge by the increased emphasis of his embrace; but the next instant he relaxed his hold, and sank helpless on the ground beside me, his almost insensible victim.

My first sensation as I revived were of burning pains all over my body, and exceeding cold in my hands and face; I opened my eyes to find a young Indian bending over me, and rubbing me with snow.

Passing near the cave, he had seen my fire, and heard the report of my revolver and had hastened to see what was the matter, just in time to save me from a miserable death and a revolting sepulcher. Reply