The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-10-19
A BLACK HILLS ADVENTURE.
Mr.. Smiths Singular and Narrow Escape
From Wild Animals.

From Wild Animals.
tDeadwood Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer.l
A few days ago man named Mont
gomery Smith, hailing from st. Louis,
had two singular and narrow escapes
rolled into one. He left camp about
two miles up the hills to bring letters
here to post, and, in trying to shorten
the distance 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 large brown bear
which was sleeping on the sunny side of
athicket. The thicket was on 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, in
fiicting slight scratch on one leg. and
then set off after the miner with the in
tention of eating him for dinner. The
flight led over broken ground, up and
down a ridge, and then along the base of
broken ledge.
Knowing that the bear would soon
overtake him, Smith had his eyes peeled
for some place of refuge, and he found
a good one. Close to the ground was
rift in the ledge made by part of the
rocks settling down or crumbling away,
and the bear was not a 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 fight, and,
running at full speed, he made a dive
and went into the crevice 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 its head into its
mouth and tried to work in his body.
This he couldn't do, owing to his stout
shoulders, but for a 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 ne was compelled to lie
at full length and look into the fiery eyes
of bear which could get within foul
feet of him and wanted to come nearer.
Bruin didn't give up trying 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 yelling at bear to clear out and &C
home has no effect in this rarifed atmos
phere. The mouth of the crevice was
ten feet long, and Smith could look Over
his trail for forty rods or more, no mat
ter at what point the bear was.
The animal was walking up and down
before the ledge, probably fishing for 6
plan by which he might get something
better than roots for dinner, when the
miner caught sight of three Indians
creeping along on the trail he had made
They had, perhaps, followed it for a 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, anC
then made bee line for the red men,
They fired at him once apiece and ther
turned and ran, and after about three
minutes waiting Smith crawled out anC
made 2:40 time till his breath gave out