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MOUNT RAINIER NATURE NEWS NOTES
Vol. II November 1, 1924 No. 14


ELK

Frank and Francis have arrived. When they arrived, however, they were not Frank and Francis but two scared young elk from the Olympic mountains shivering in their crates. Not until they made the acquaintance of the kind-hearted cook at their mess house, who is always the birds, bears and deers best friend, did they acquire their present names. Like the other elk about Longmire they have suffered from over-civilization and much prefer to "hit back doors" for a living than to shift for themselves. With the generous support of the State Game Commission these splendid animals are being reestablished on their former range.


PARK BEAR TURNS HOUSE BREAKER

One of several bears that have taken up fall headquarters about Longmire Springs has become so thoroughly obsessed with the idea that the world owes him the best it has that he has, without invitation - in spite of vigorous protests on the part of the management - in fact adopted the hotel as his boarding house. Every night he came and demanded food. At first he was fed and treated as a brother but he did not appreciate kindness and became surly and quarrelsome. When, because of his bad manners, he was refused food, he caved in most of the windows in the kitchen and storerooms and helped himself. This method being protested he attacked the manager and was only stopped by a heavy, well aimed tumbler full in the from the husky chef. Then he was reported to the Superintendent and corrective punishment was planned. When spiked bars at the windows did not stop his house-breaking escapades he was awaited by a committee of rangers armed with a light shotgun loaded for ducks. From his manner of departing we supposed he would never return but he did - before the evening was over in fact. Next evening, the chief electrician having been added to the committee, bruin was given 220 volts of electricity by way of his tender nose which he unwittingly placed on the coil hidden in a pan of food at the kitchen door. Again he turned over backwards in the air and made tracks far apart toward the river.

So far as we know he has never returned. It has been agreed among the rangers that civilization without education is not really civilization.

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http://www.nps.gov/mora/notes/vol2-14c.htm
19-Feb-2001