Weekly Trinity journal., 1857-03-21


ure. The tolls of the day had fatigued us much,
but the fact of nearing by few miles the actual
scene of our labors, made us light-hcarted aud
cheerful. A fire was soon made and the supper
in preparation. Tim felt as though he had half
his " pile already in his pocket. While he and
Charley were preparing supper, Grotius and my
self drove the mules to the opposite side of the
river where we found excellent grass. As Gro
titus had not taken his saddle from the mule he
forded the river, driving the animals before him,
while kept up heavy fire of stones from the
bank Grotus had proceeded but short dis
tancc from the opposite bank before the savage
growl of grizzly echoed across the stream. The
mules with raised heads and ears spraug madly
backward and forward through the brush, and
the one which Grotus was riding became alto
gether unmanagabe. All the rifles in camp were
got in readiness for use at the first sight of the
desperate enemy. For half an hour at least the
greatest excitement prevailed. The camp was
alarmed for the safety of Grotius, who seemed to
be engaged in actual battle with his formidable
foe. Tim had climbed a tree close to the river in
order to see what position the hostile parties oc-
cupicd. Grotius had fired three shots from his
Colts revolver, but without doing any apparent
harm to the bear. Between Groius and the
grizzly was a deep cut made from the turning of
the stream. and round which Grotius could ride
safely and rapidly. The bear in his savage fury
made an attempt to leap the cut and fell to the
bottom taking in his descent a large strip of the
opposite hank. Tim, who was elevated in the
tree caledsto Charley so pass up his rifle. Char
ley quickly handed Tim the old Hawkins, and
ina second the rife was levelcd at Bruin. After
Tim had fired, Grotius exclaimed from the thick
ct, q" Tim. you have settled all accounts with his
majesty" You bet your odd rib that it looks
so to man up a tree" responded Tim. The last
dying yell of that huge grizzly will always be re
membcrcd as the most terrific sound have ever
heard. Tins shot although a very fortunate
one was purely accidental The ball entered
the left eye of the bear, but did not come out
The bear lived about one hour, but it will not be
wondered at that Tins shot did 10 kill him in
stantly, when on opening him VIC found that
Grotius had sent ball through the butt of the
heart | could not doubt for both saw and ex-
amined for myself Tim cut some very nice
steaks from the most tender part and cooked
them for breakfast This the first bear meat
| had ever eaten. but am not prepared to say
that it was the last for | rclished it very much,
and thought it almost as good as fresh pork
All hands congratulated Tim on his glorious
achievement over the bear. and Tim really CON
graduated himself saying at the same time that
he intended to write Sally ChiSm the whole par
tculars in his first letter to her. Grotius prom
ised Tim that he would describe the incident fully
in Tins favor. At q late hour We retired to
sleep elated with the success Of our first encoun-
! ter. and believing that worse enemies even than
grizzly bears may he met sometimes in the world.
| At daylight some Indians came into camp and
as well as we could understand them required
permission to help themselves to the victim
This we readily granted and in less than two
hours there appeared to be about one hundred
and fifty Dggers enjoying the feast. While we
were eating breakfast some three or four Indians
crossed the river and came into camp There
was one who appeared to be leading warrior or
chief He made signs to ascertain which OF us
it was who shot the bear. We referred him to
Tim who he took to be the chief or leader of
our little band. The interview between him and
Tim was very interesting. The Indian chief
pointed to his own wounds and then placing his
hand upon his heart and with sort Of a low
gutteral grunt give Tim to understand that he
was both brave and generous chief. Tim car
ricd out the idea to the chief that he Tim, was
also great chief This joke passed along very
well until the old Indian took a seat by Tins
side, and deeming himself privileged from the
high appreciation manifested by Tim toward him,
he thought it no intrusion to help himself to
bread and share the sop" in the same pan with
Tim. This was little more than Tim could
stand so he yielded the pan, sop and all to the
Indian, who eat not less than had served five of
u.s. Tim reminded the chief that our mules were
scattered the opposite side Of the river and that
he would like him to send his men after them
The chief at once gave orders to his men to bring
up the animals, but asked Tim if would give
/ them some bread. Tim pointed to a cake which
! lay on the back of q tin pan. This was enough,
they bounded across the river in great haste and
in less than half an hour the mules were all safe
in camp Every thing was fixed and put in sha pc
for packing with dispatch. The previous days
experience had been Of some advantage to us,
because the packs were ashed on the backs Of the
animals mere secure, which enabled US to make
a good days travel, and ourselves that fret
ting and fatigue which is so annoying to persons
when they first commence packing. This days
travel brought us to Roses Bar, when we campcd
for the night Our big tent was erected and the
mules driven back to good grass. THIS bar
although Of the liveliest places ever saw for
the number Of people is not very hard to de
scribe. There was about sixteen tents, and quite
a large sized shanty, built out Of clap boards
A big corral was built on the center Of the bar,
which contained some ten or twelve head Of wild
Spanish cattle. There appeared to be about
hundred and twenty-five men but the majority
were evidently intoxicated and three or four
drunken rows marked the night. About O'Clock
at night an old gentleman came over to our
tent and introduced himself as a friend. lie was
indeed a welcome visitor, for he was a very in
telligent man. and gave US all the information
he possessed about the art Of mining, when was
then very valuable lie told US that it would be
much to our advantage to work a few days for
hire in order to learn how to mine. We thought
so too and Grotius informed him that we would
gladly work if we could hire. The old man
agreed at once to employ us all for one week at
sic per day and found. This we accepted and
went to work.
, fro BE CONTINUED.
Az infnmons hachelnr heinr asked if he eyer