Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-02-26
A Fight With Il Grizzly.


We were up on the mountains
spur of the Rockies-in a SPOT be-
You'd the GRAY Bull country, in Wy
ouning, said Mr. IL B. Leckler to
reporter for the Eagle. I'VE set one
trap low down On the mountain side,
where we saw bear signs, but failed
to catch anything in il, and the next
day concluded to move higher up on
the mountain. We had finished this
at o'clock in the afternoon and were
about returning when we came across
bear trail which looked so fresh
that we determined to follow 1t, al
though it was so late, and bear hunt
unusually takes all day. Well, that
trail led up one height and down ar-
other, into a canyon and up an almost
perpendicular cliff, and through the
toughest and thickest underbrush
We followed il as fast as we could till
it drew quite dusk | took out my
watch and was just preparing to sug-
gest that it was about time for return
ing to the place where we had left our
horses when / heard shot fred by
the guide, who, with Mr.. Ellis, was
fifty yards in advance of me- / ram
med my watch into my pocket and
run forward to JOIN nay friends
and see what was up. / had only got
q few pages when / heard Ellis give
the most bleodcurdliug cry / ever
listened to IN my life. Then | heard
the crack of a branch and the guide
shouted, look out / looked upward
and saw a big grizzly bear coming
laundering along in my direction. 1t
was just sixty one feet away meas
ured the distance afterward. / fired,
but it still came on. / fired again
when it was about forty feet distant
from me, but that did not stop it. At
about twenty feet, l fired again, but
1t came on. Then turned and tried
TO run between two pine trees which
were behind me, trailing their branch
es to the ground. / had on rubber
boots but the soles were like glass.
/ stepped on q fallen branch, slipped
and went almost to pieces, you might
say Heels over head / rolled, and
my rifle flew away from me. jump
ed TO nay feet and made the biggest
time on record, jumping over logs and
flying through the underbrush like
mad, till heard yell behind me,
"all right
"Then turned back and found my
companions standing beside the car
cass of the bear, 1t had covered my
tracks for about FIVE yards and then
sat down feeling sick and they had
given it a finishing bullet in the head.
One of my bullets had struck it in
the breast and gone clear through.
1t was she bear without any cubs,
the first case OF the kind | ever saw.
They were within twenty feet of it be-
fore they saw it at first, and the guide
shot it in the back Then it rose upon
it's hind legs and the guide shot again.
1t dropped on all fours then and star
ted straight at the hunters, and then
it was that Ellis yelled to scare it, |
presume it was not used to such
noises, for it swung to one side and
ran through the bushes at me. l
didn't know whether it meant any
harm TO me or whether it was merely
trying to escape, but | guess it meant
business.
1T was tho latest animal 1 ever
saw. The fat on its back was four
inches in thickness, and the layer Of
fat all around its body was two inches
thick at the thinDcst part. 1t weigh
ed 720 pounds. That was ou only
real adventure with bear, although
we killed three The other two were
trapped. Singular thing, now, one
of the bears we killed had nothing
but big ball of hair in his stomach
and another had nothing at all. y
Brooklyn Eagle.