The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-10-04
A Black Hills Adventure.

A rev days ago man named Mont
gomery Smith, hailing from St. Louis,
had two singular and narrow escapes
rolled into one. He left camp about
thirty miles up the Hills to bring letters
here to post; and in trying to shorten
the distance a little he lost the regular
trail and got into bad bit of country.
While hunting for the trail he came
across fresh signs of Indians, and while
hurrying out of the neighborhood he
ran directly upon a large brown bear
which was sleeping on the sunny side
of a thicket. The thicket was on a
side hill, and Smith was going at good
pace when he turned the clump. The
bear was so near when the man caught
sight of him that there was neither time
to halt nor chance to turn out, and
bruin was cleared by flying leap. He
made stroke at Smith as he went over,
inficting slight scratch on one leg,
and then set off after the miner with
the intention of eating him for dinner.
The fight led over broken ground, up
and down ridge, and then along the
base of a broken ledge.
h Knowing that the bear would soon
overtake him, Smith had his eye peeled
for some place of refuge, and he found
good one. Close to the ground was a
rift in the ledge made by part of the
rocks settling down or crumbling away.
He saw it when only thirty away, and
the bear was not hundred feet in his
rear. There was no time to guess
whether the crevice was big enough to
admit the man, and too small to let the
bear in after him, or SO small that the
victim would be there overtaken and
devoured. He had dropped his gun to
aid his flight, and running at full speed
he made dive and went into the crew
ice head first, raking enough hide off
his shoulders and back to make
pair of baby shoes. The bear wasn't
ten seconds behind him, and as
Smith reached the back end of the
cave, which was not over six feet
deep, the bear put his head into its
mouth and tried to work in his body.
This he couldn't do, owing to his stout
shoulders, but for quarter of an hour
Montgomery Smith was doubtless the
worst frightened man In North America.
There was room enough for him to
turn around in, but he was compelled
to lie at full length and look into the
fiery eyes of a bear which could get
within four feet of him and wanted to
come nearer. Bruin didn't give up try
ing till he had sadly cut and bruised
himself against the stones, and his
snarls and growls put more religious
thoughts into Smiths head than had
ever lodged there before. The bear
couldn't get him, but neither could he
get the bear. He had nothing to shoot
with, neither food nor drink, and yell
ing at bear to clear out and go home
has no effect in this rarified atmosphere.
The mouth of the crevice was ten feet
long. and Smith could look out over his
trail for forty rods or more, no matter
at what point the bear was.
The animal was walking up and
down before the Hedge, probably fish
ing for plan by which he4night get |
better than roots for dinner,
when the miner caught sight of three
Indians creeping along on the trail he
had. made. They bad, perhaps, fol-
lowed it for mile or more, and must |
have known that the bear had the first
claim. The redskins had Just come
INTO view when they saw the bear, the
bear saw them, and Smith saw the
whole thing. The bear looked in ON
smith in despairing manner, and
hen made Decline for the red-men.
They fired at him once apiece and then |
;urned and ran, and after about three
waiting Smith crawled out