The Republican journal., 1876-01-13
Desperate Fight With a Bear.

New YORK, Dec 81 Correspondence
received here from Delhi, which is locat-
ed in wild and unfrequented portion OF
The Catskill mountains, describes a thrill
ING encounter between a couple OF women
and bear that was found poachlng on the
preserves of one of the citizens OF that re-
gion. There are but few settlements in
the vicinity; but about a year ago a man
named Jonas Butler put up a cabin on one
OF the mountain tributaries OF the stream,
having contract with parties in Greene
county to peel bark and cut railroad ties
His wife and two children, one girl
about 1G and the other an infant, occupy
the cabin with him. Butler goes into the
woods sometimes several miles from his
home, and often does not return for two
or three days On Sunday last he went
out to his work, leaving his family in
their cabin The section is noted Tor its
wild game, deer and bear being plentiful,
but the present season bears have been
unusually numerous and bold. and the pig
pen Of the Buffers has twice been depopu-
lated
About ) o'clock Sunday afternoon Mrs.
Butler and her daughter were preparing
to iced the pigs, when an immense black
bear was discovered trying to get ont of
the enclosure with fine tat shote in its
embrace. MIS-. Butler seized heavy
wooden mallet used in driving wedges,
and her daughter took up an axe They
ran and jumped into the pen, followed by
the dog, and commenced an attack on the
bear. 1t held on to the pig, however. I'M
til the blows OF the women and the cites
Of the dog become too much for aim,
when he turned on his assailants. IL seiz-
ed the dog and crushed it to death. The
Girl rained in blows with the axe on the
head of the bear, when suddenly brun
made for her With one sweep of his
great paw he sent her axe flying out OF
the enclosure, and pressed her into one
corner The mother, seeing her daugh-
ter's danger, increased the fury of her as
sault with the mailet, and although the
bear got the girl in its embrace, it drop
ped her before doing her material injury,
to ward off the attacks of the mother. The
floor of the pen was now slippery with
blood that was flowing from the wounds
OF the bear, for the girl had struck with
the edge of the axe and buried it some
where in the animal every time. When
the bear turned on the mother she shouted
to her daughter to run to the house and
get the rifle While Jennie was gone her
mother succeeded in keeping the bear
from getting too close to her, but when the
daughter returned with the rifle she was
about exhausted, and was fighting from a
corner into which the bear was pressing
her closely, having disarmed her. Jennie
put the barrel of the gun through chink
in the logs and fired. The ball entered be-
hind the bears foreshoulder, and he fell
to the floor and died in short time. 1t
was long time before Mrs. Butler could
summon strength enough to climb out of
the enclosure, and as soon as the excite
ment that had sustained the daughter was
over the latter fell fainting to the ground,
and it was two hours before she could get
about again. Her clothing was nearly all
torn from her by the claws OF the bear,
but neither of the women sustained any
serious injury. Monday Jennie walked
out to where her father was at work and
told him of the adventure, when he re-
turned home with her and skinned and
dressed the bear 1t weighed over three
hundred pounds.