The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-09-25
From the Chicago Tribune
EXTRAORDINARY FIGHT WITH A BEAR.

from the chicago Tribune.
EXTRAORDINARY FIGHT WITH A BEAR.
Captain Hail. of the schooner Adriatic. sends
us the following exceedingly interesting account
OF the capture, by himself and FIVE of his crew,
In small boat, of an enormous black bear
which they found swimming across Bay de
Noque:
CHICAGO, august 80, 1856.
To the Editors ofhae Chicago Tribune:
AT the request of my crew. have written the
following account of an encounter with a bear.
The names of the crew are ID. NJ. Payne, mate:
and c. Wetmore, Daniel McLennan, John Nc
Lehman, and George Settard, seamen, all of
whom participated in the rare and exciting
sport.
On Monday last, the 18th instant, while w.
ing at anchor, with the schooner Adriatic, at the
head of that beautiful land locked harbor, Petit
Bay de Noque, an arm of Green Bay, project
ing from its northern extremity some fifteen
miles into the land toward Lake Superior, NV
attention was called by one OF the crew to a
large black animal on White Fish Point, which,
on examination with a glass, proved to be a
very large black bear, just taking to the water,
with the intention, apparently, of swimming to
the opposite shore of the bay, which, at this
point, is over a mile wide, the distance being
divided by two or three small islands. imme,
diately ordered the boat made ready, which took
some little time, as spar, with sail attached,
had to be unshipped. Before this could be
done, the bear had reached nearly half the dis
lance from the point to the first island, and it
became necessary to use dispatch, in order to
prevent his gaining footing upon it for, with
the weapons we had, 1t would have been mad.
ness to attack such formidable monster on
land. The boat was manned with four oars
and clumsy paddle, made of an inch pine
board, which was used to steer with, instead of
a rudder or fifth oar, of which we were minua.
The wind was blowing very strongly from the
northward, being about abeam for the bear, and
directly ahead for az. In our haste, we took
no weapons but an old dull ak and common
bread knife-indeed, we had no other. unless
we had taken some hand-spikes, and one or two
more knives, similar to the one we took, but
which were not just at hand,
The bear wag aGmething q anarte, &c m;Ia
troH "a when we started. he men were all
good oarsmen, and "" ?. soon overbauled Bruin.
ause os'"e reaching him, two of the oars were
unshipped, one being taken in place of the pad
die to steer with, by Mr.. Payne, who managed
the boat very adroitly in the sinuous chase
which followed. One of the crew taking the
ak, and myself the knife, we stationed ourselves
forward, ready for the attack. The bear swan
from US as we approached, ard Wetmore, who
had the ak, aimed blow at his head, intending
to cleave his skull, but struck little too soon,
in6icting deep wound in the neck, at the same
time cutting off the tip Of his ear, but did not
touch the spine or any important blood-vessel,
and the wound had no other immediate effect
than to enrage him. He turned towards the
boat a moment, showed set of tusks that would
have done honor TO wild boar, and gave a
deep growl, more like that of lion than any
thing else ever heard. He did not attack the
boat at this tine, but struck out with all his
might for the nearest island He was powerful
swimmer, and the two oarsmen had no light
task to head him off. AS we came up with
him again. he eluded the second blow aimed at
him with the ak, and it was lost overheard,
which left US with no weapon but the knife.
As we came up with him the third time, gave
him two thrusts in the neck with the knife, one
on each side of the spine, sending the blade in
up to the hilt. lie now turned upon US, and
attacked the boat, growing with terrific fierce
ness. AS he came up, gave him several thrusts
with the knife, avoiding the passes he made
with his powerful jaws, one conclusion Of which
would no doubt have broken or taken off my
arm. Striking the bow, the blade of the knife
bent nearly double, rendering it useless for the
time. 1 then seized the pine paddle, and gave
him blow upon the skull that shivered the
paddle in pieces, but which seemed to have no
effect whatever upon the bear. He now got
one paw upon the gunwale of the boat, aud
seized it with his teeth At this critical mo-
ment, the oars were brought into requisition by
the mate and crew, and several well directed
blows from them, coming down upon him at
once, forced him to relinquish his hold upon
the boat. Had he succeeded in getting into
the boat we must have retreated into the ele-
L. lad Iaff
sought safety again in flight towards the island,
which we had considerably neared during the
fight. We Immediately pursued again, and
improved the time to straigbten my knife blade,
and, as we came up, gave him another thrust in
the neck, and then seized him by the long hair
upon his rump. The velocity of the boat brought
his head under it. AS l was in the bow, and
the men urging the boat forward, / could very
easily hold him in that position, notwithstand-
ing bis powerful struggles, he having no footing
upon the bottom. While struggling, he struck
the side of the boat with his open paw, each
nail taking chip out Of the plank. His strug-
giles grew weaker, and finally ceased, when we
supposed him dead, and hauled him into the
boat, and pulled for the schooner. We soon
perceived that Bruin was not dead, but sppa-
rently "playing possum." We lost no time in
securing his hind feet as well as we could to the
forward ring of the boat, with q very short piece
of small, halfrotten hemp rope that happened
to be in it but as the animal began to arouse,
we were not without apprehensions that he
might still have sufficient strength to break this
slender fastening, and drive US out of the boat,
or escape; and having nothing to dispatch him
with, we pulled for the brig Geneva, which was
lying near by, and called to her crew to get en-
ak ready for use. As we came alongside, the
bear raised up on his fore paws, aud reaching