Bear Hunting has been in our veins for more years than we could possibly have imagined. Our Forefathers over the years, killed over 50,000 Giant Cave Bear's and left their bones deep inside Caves where they have been recently discovered.
How many Hunts were revisited over a roaring campfire with Fresh Bear Steaks roasting over the spit. While silent Youngsters gather round, eager to hear once more how the the Brave Storytellers "Scars" came to be.
Doug
"A large quantity of bear fossils were found near Mixnitz in Styria, Austria, in a cave known as the Drachenhohle. Man had taken refuge there from time to time and Cave Bears had also lived deep in the interior, though it is improbable that man and bear occupied the cave simultaneously."
Near a spring two hundred yards or so from the entrance to the cave, living quarters and a fireplace were identified, together with artificially arranged stones, bones displaying traces of fire and large numbers of utensils. The large eye-teeth of Cave Bears had been fashioned into tools, weapons and scrapers, the latter having been used principally to remove sinews from fat.
The discoveries made in this cave surpass one's wildest imaginings. The remains of no less than Fifty Thousand Bears have been counted there, although the place was frequented by these animals for such an immense span of time, this works out to only a few Bears taken per year!
Far in the depths of the cave are a number of very narrow passages formed by huge blocks of stone which had fallen from the walls and roof, and on the sides of these passages can be seen the Marks of Bear's Paws, so distinct in places that the five furrows made by one set of claws can easily be counted. It is immediately apparent that the animals were in dire straits, probably because they had been trapped and were exerting every ounce of energy in a desperate attempt to escape.
Scratch marks of this type were identified at several points in the cave's interior, but always where the walls narrowed. Sometimes vertical and sometimes horizontal, they are visible evidence of a dramatic fight for freedom, escape and survival.
Adolf Bachofen von Echt, Austrian paleontologist, surmised that snares had been laid in these defiles, a laborious task, considering that the everlasting gloom of the cave's interior could have been only sparingly illumined by oil lamps. When a bear was trapped, man would creep up and try to kill it with his primitive stone weapons. The snares were probably made out of bear's sinew, which meant that the animals fell prey to the unyielding strength of their own tough fibers.
