The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-09-13
A True Bear Story.

A large part of Michigan is still new,
and is covered with forests, among which
are scattered the log cabins of the hardy
pioneers. Game of various kinds abound.
The lugubrious howl of the wolf is some
times heard, calling up in imagination OF
the startled listener pictures of danger,
which, it must be confessed, have very
little foundation in reality. Not unfre-
.quently, at certain seasons, bears come
out of the deeper recesses of the forest,
affording the opportunity of an exciting
and usually unsuccessful chase, but sell
dom doing any damage more serious than
lifting a fat pig out of the sly and taking
huge mouthful or two out of his back.
A few years ago a curious event hap
pened in connection with the visit of a
bear to the settlements in Mason county,
not far from the shore of Lake Michigan.
In that region are extensive tracts of
open pine woods, in which a moderately
luxuriant growth of wild grass, not un-
like some of the famous grasses Of the
Western prairies, affords abundant pas
turage for stock. One of the settlers was
in the habit of turning his horse out to
Craze at some distance from home. Co.
ing one day to the pasture ground, he
took his little girl, some three years old,
up on his horse for ride, putting her
down again a short distance from the
house, expecting that she would be able
to return to it alone. Looking back soon
after, he saw that she had stopped and
was playing in the loose sand in the
path. On returning to the house, after
leaving his horse at the pasture ground,
he was greatly alarmed to find that she
had not been seen by the family. His
first act, of course, was to visit the place
where he had seen her last, where, to his
horror, mingled with her own little
tracks, were to be seen the tracks of a
huge bear plainly impressed in the sand.
The inference was, and it proved to be
correct, that the bear had carried off the
child. The neighbors were informed of
the circumstances, and party of men
started in pursuit. After hunting unsuc-
'cessfully during the remainder Of the
day, they encamped at night near the
Pere Marquette river. On going toward
the river, the following morning, a loud
splashing was heard, as if made by some
large animal running through the water.
AS the men came down to the margin of
the stream, the bear was just plunging
into thicket on the opposite shore, and
strangest sight of all, in the middle OF
the stream was the little girl, sitting un-
harmed on log which projected some
distance above the surface of the water
OF course the men were not long in bring
ing her to land.
The little girl could not tell much
about the adventure, only that she was
not afraid, that the bear Rugged her and
kept her warm, and that she boxed the
bears ears, to which the bear submitted
without a growl.
The accepted theory among those cog
infant of the circumstances is that the
bear was female that had lost her
young, thvt she adopted the little girl in
the place Of her own offspring, and that
being surprised at the sudden appearance
and close proximity of the men ON the
bank of the river, as she was crossing the
stream, alarm for her own safety over
came her motherly instinct, so she de-
posted her burden in the first convenient
place, and took to flight.
The Indians living in the vicinity re-
late how one of their little girls was once
stolen by a motherly bear and kept sew
eral weeks, being fed on blackberries,
which the bear gathered for her by biting
off the bushes and laying them, loaded
with the ripe fruit, at her feet. 1t is only
an Indian story, but is, perhaps, fully as
interesting and quite as reliable as many
of the marvellous relations that figure SO
conspicuously in ancient history. In the
case of our little girl there is no telling
what the result might have been if she
had not been SO providentially rescued
DR.. L. Leach, in Western Rural.