In the early days of California, the pioneer habitancy of the state was wont to amuse themselves with the gruesome ritual of bull and bear fights. surely something that would never be standard today, these events made the Mexican tradition of bullfighting look tame by comparison. A large quantum of the California habitancy in those days was Spanish, and anyone pertaining to the fighting of bulls would draw out the full Mexican population, seniors senoras, and senoritas. Any way the bull and bear fight was not dinky to just one ethnic group, and was a sport appreciated by all the habitancy in those days, as the Americans would turn out alongside everyone else. Sunday, by custom, was the day set apart for these exhibitions, for on that day, everyone came to town for shopping and other business.
Spanish cattle were plentiful, and there were abundance of men who had been trained to cope them; but bears, real grizzlies, were hazardous and not so surely caught and handled. They were valued all the way from one to four thousand dollars. Consequently, because of its value, when a real grizzly was caught and caged, he was ordinarily given an unfair benefit in the fight.
The black bear, a smaller animal, inhabits the Sierras and the northern part of Oregon. There are also the cinnamon bear and brown bear in the mountains, indeed, none of them will attack man unless pressed to the combat. But the grizzly is different. He is combative and destructive, especially if wounded or brought to bay by his pursuers. The weight of the grizzly is much larger than other bears, weighing from eight hundred to sixteen hundred pounds; and some, more than seven feet in distance and over two thousand pounds in weight, have been killed in the State of California. These bears are giants in force and appearance, far surpassing the lion and tiger.
It was in the middle of these monsters and the fierce Spanish bull that these desperate struggles once took place, when a dollar a head was willingly paid to see the bull and bear fight in California. These savage sports are long gone, but to the lover of brute force their memory will always form a spectacle of deep interest. The pit was circular, formed upon the ground by many posts planted in the earth from eight to ten feet in height, with seats nearby like the amphitheatres of the Romans. In this pit the grizzly was placed: the bull, after having his nose scarred so that the blood would trickle into his mouth and nostrils, so that by tasting and smelling which he would become desperate and roar furiously, was ushered into the proximity of his mortal enemy. The sight and smell of each was the signal for the other to prepare for battle. Regularly the bull was lassoed just before the fight, his horns sawed off, and the fight pretty well taken out of him before he was turned into the ring. Because the bear was so valuable, his loss was often not risked.
These fights were a strange bit of history and did not last long, but the strangeness of this spectacle was seen in many locations of early California. It was not many years before there were few if any grizzlies left in the state and thankfully this bizarre practice was put to an end.
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