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. It is
said that cowboys have so brought into camp a grizzly bear,
forcing him to half walk and half slide at the end of the ropes.
No feat better than this could show the courage of the plainsman
and of the horse which he so perfectly controlled.

Of such wild and dangerous exploits were the cowboy's amusements
on the range. It may be imagined what were his amusements when he
visited the "settlements." The cow-punchers, reared in the free
life of the open air, under circumstances of the utmost freedom
of individual action, perhaps came off the drive or round-up
after weeks or months of unusual restraint or hardship, and felt
that the time had arrived for them to "celebrate." Merely great
rude children, as wild and untamed and untaught as the herds they
led, they regarded their first look at the "settlements" of the
railroads as a glimpse of a wider world. They pursued to the
uttermost such avenues of new experience as lay before them,