Frost killed his first bear when fourteen years of age, and has added
nearly five hundred to this number since that time.
It is characteristic of the grizzly that he will charge upon the
slightest provocation, and that nothing will turn him aside from his
purpose. Later we found this particularly true where the female with
cubs is concerned.
Instances of this are too well known to recount, but one coming under
our own experience was related to me by Tom Murphy, the bear hunter of
California.
In early days in Humboldt County, there lived an old settler named Pete
Bluford, who was a squaw man. He shot a female grizzly with cubs within
a quarter of a mile of what are now the town limits of Blocksburg. The
beast charged and struck him to the ground. At the same time she ripped
open the man's abdomen. Bluford dropped under a fallen tree, where the
bear repeatedly assaulted him, tearing at his body. By rolling back and
forth as the grizzly leaped over the log to reach him from the other
side, he escaped further injury. Worried by the hunter's dog, she
finally ceased her efforts and wandered off.
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