Morning journal and courier., 1886-03-08
TOBOGGANING BEARS.
An Ulster County Man Tells of Strange Sights in the Mountains-SlfdIng Down the Ice Crust.

An Ulster County Man Tells of Strange Sights in the Mountains-SlfdIng Dewn the Ice Crust. From the Kingston (N. Y.) Freeman.
 ''Did you ever see bear slide down the ice crust?" inquired a reporter of an old Shandrake hunter. "A man told me once that he saw bear do that to get away from a h unter and dogs" :
 FtYes, I saw bear do that once. It was above Watson hollow, near the gulf, as it is called. The bear I was tracking started above Big Indian hollow, and went up tow ard Panther mountain. Then it gave me long chase over the ridges and mountains, striking in again at the Wittenburg, then on the Hanover, then following that ridge until it came near the head of Watson hol- low. There crowded it close with the dogs. Just above the hollow, the road to the gulf, is steep descent of nearly 1000 feet, I should judge, caused by slide, and when covered with snow, if there is a crust to ride down it, even on snowshoes, I think would take the wind out of a man, and certainly would break his neck at the bottom. As we reached the head of that steep pitch the dogs began to worry the beast. One green horn ran up to it and caught it by the hind leg. The bear gave that dog a slap which sent him away about ten feet and made the whole side of its head look as though it had been blistered. The dog had enough of it: but one of my dogs was an old bear dog, and bruin was forced to bay. I had in my gun enly buckshot, and so had to go closer to it than if I had a rife. I reached the outer edge of the ridge and hastened to get within range, when the bear, seeming to realize that it was conquered, gave bound into tie air, Topped over on it's back, rolled itself in sort of ball, and the next second was going down on the icy crust so swift that you could hardly tell what the object was It was out of sight in jiffy, and that was the last I of it, for I had to go at least two miles around to get down into the gully, and though I found some hair and a piece of hide, the bear had evidently come out of its ride without much injury and gone up the steep side of the opposite mountain. I tel you bear is very cute animal in some re spects. Talk about riding down hill, I will relate circumstance which, of course, you won't believe, but which is an actual fact" "Go ahead" said the reporter.
 "One day l was toiling up the steep side of Slide mountain, having seen bear trail. All at once my dog came scurrying back with it's hair pointing toward its head and it's tail bristling all over. The canine was very much excited, and I thought it must have struck wild cat. I cooked my gun and moved cautiously along to a clump of bushes, and all at once an object shot by me over the crust and fairly made me jump. I could not imagine what it Just then another went by I didn't think it was a
 
 little noise. It kinder hissed as it slipped past. Cautiously I worked my way to the place, and there was a sort of slide that looked liked long, shallow trough, worn in the crust and ice. It must have been 300 feet long. thought first that some one had been sl1ding down the side of the mountain, you know they have slides, or runs, some times: but when I came to think knew it wasn't wide enough for that. Just then l saw an object coming down like a streak of lightning. I could have shot it suppose, if I had shot up the slide, but I did not know what it was. It went by me so quick that saw hair on the edge of the slide, and it came to me all at once that it was bear. I waited for another, and would have given it dose of buckshot if it had come, but it didn't come. Now do you know, that after Investigating that thing I came to the con clusion that bears had made that slide to have fun riding down hill"
 ''No! You don't mean to say so," ejacu- lated the astonished news man.
 ''I went to the foot of the slide," contin- ued the hunter, land the snow was trampled and the bark torn off the trees, and pieces strewn around us though the bears had had a regular 'kinterkoy, as the Dutchmen say. They had actually used pieces of bark to ride down on! They had ridden down that slide till they found it was necessarily wearing pieces of bark and sat on them-you know piece of bark makes splendid sleigh, al most as good as staves-and shot down that almost perpendicular icy trough, in the crust, hundreds of feet, hissing they went. This is bears way of laughing. They must have done that great many times by the looks of the slide"