Elk have been roped by
cowboys many times, and it is known that even the mountain sheep
has been so taken, almost incredible as that may seem. The young
buffalo were easy prey for the cowboy and these he often roped
and made captive. In fact the beginnings of all the herds of
buffalo now in captivity in this country were the calves roped
and secured by cowboys; and these few scattered individuals of a
grand race of animals remain as melancholy reminders alike of a
national shiftlessness and an individual skill and daring.
The grizzly was at times seen by the cowboys on the range, and if
it chanced that several cowboys were together it was not unusual
to give him chase. They did not always rope him, for it was
rarely that the nature of the country made this possible.
Sometimes they roped him and wished they could let him go, for a
grizzly bear is uncommonly active and straightforward in his
habits at close quarters. The extreme difficulty of such a
combat, however, gave it its chief fascination for the cowboy. Of
course, no one horse could hold the bear after it was roped, but,
as one after another came up, the bear was caught by neck and
foot and body, until at last he was tangled and tripped and
hauled
about till he was helpless, strangled, and nearly dead.
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