Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-02-24

brush was calling out to inquire II W
were both safe. After replying that W
were all right, turned my attention
to the Englishman.
Fortunately for him, the space be
tween his tree aud mine was quit,
clear. In the hurry to get him up of
the ground, he had sprung to tho near
est tree after Sagcbrush called out, ant
IL turned out to be the poorest kind o
n retreat. After the first six feet from
the ground numerous snags made i
easy enough to scale; but very few
feet higher up and it ended in such I
bushy mass of little branches that II
was impossible for him to climb well
out of danger
No moro uncomfortable position
could be very we'll imagined than the
ono he found himself in when arrested
| by the scrubby branches. Had we been
dealing with an attacking party OF
brown bears or silver tips he would
| have been nabbed in less than min
ute after the bears reached the foot OF
his tree. Fortunately for him, grizzlies
have little or no notion of climbing
trees. As 1t was, however, when the
biggest of them stretched up after him
the margin of safety between his feet
and the grizzly's eager claws might
have been measured by inches.
The moon was about half waned,
and wasn't bright enough for me to see
exactly how things were with him; but
all of of sudden he sang out, "For
Gods sake, Hank, use your Winches-
ter IL you can. I'm in II devil of trap;
tho f'ro climbing the tree!"
Sure enough one determined old
cuss was making clumsy attempt to
hoist himself up by clinging to the
snags above. He was grunting horri-
bly,, in eager anticipation of reaching
his victim, who was adj but within his
grasp. The noise he was making
seemed to inspire the others with the
belief that their prey was about to be
seized, and they were all crowding
about the Englishman's tree, reaching
up and whining savagely and licking
their chops. / shuddered at the pros
pect of his fate should they be able to
reach and drag him down, or should
he loose his nerve.
Drawing bead on the varmint that
was trying to climb the tree, my Win
chester barked. The light was uncer-
tain, but the distance was short, and
was nightly relieved to see him top
t,1n mud tnln 10 nnn,,inpr nnI
thrashing around on the ground. In
his fury at the sharp twinge of the bull
let he tackled one of the other bears,
and for minute or two we witnessed
n scrimmage that was away ahead of
any circus for real live show. For
the time being the other three bears
seemed to forget us; they shuilled
around the combatantS, walked back
ward, stood on their hind feet, whined
and snarled, and otherwise betrayed
great excitement 1t isn't very often
that bears get to fighting among them
selves; they are generally rs peace
full and playful as SO many kittens
When they do get at it. however, they
are pretty savage, and the wounded
grizzly and his antagonist fought and
rolled and roarcd and kicked up such
n racket that Sagcbush shouted out,
wanting to know what the deuce was
up; and two other bears deserted their
vigil under his tree and came lumber
ing over to the scene of the conflict.
II guess Tn all right now, Hank"
sang out the Englishman at this stage
of the circus. ave found snag that
! can sit down on after II fashion and
draw my feet up higher, l couldn't
use my gun before" bang! He seemed
eager to show that he was in position
to use it now, anyhow; and to some
purpose, for, at the crack of his Win
chester, round and round spun another
grizzly. roaring and biting where he
had been struck.
"Let en- have 1t, Hank; we'll have
the whole blawsted herd a-fghting
and tearing one another to pieces in a
minute" Bang! went my own Win
chester in reply; and bang! again went
his own, Another bear was made fight
ing mad with a bullet, perhaps two, in
his carcass, and began snarling and
thrashing around among the others.
The din of battling bears, the fight
ing, cutting, snarling and roaring was
making the pine woods ring, and yet
another one came hurrying across from
Sagebrush's direction. We were now
looking down upon herd of seven
grizzlies, the biggest bunch l ever saw
together up in the mountains, although
| have seen II heap bigger parties down
along the creeks in the bcrrying sea-
son. The beauty of it was that they
We're pretty nearly all fighting; it was
the prettiest fight / remember, barring
a fight | once saw in broad daylight be-
tween n big silver tip and couple OF
mountain lions. II it had only been
daylight believe the big bear fight un-
der our trees would have beat even that
for good square show.
As the last bear came and joined the
crowd, Sagebrush called out to say
that ever mothers son of n grizzly had
forsaken his tree, and asked us to hold
them while he climed down to pick up
his gun. 1t was not at all difficult to
grant this request, for the bears seemed
to have no idea of running away yet,
three of them were wounded
and making things mighty uncomfort-
able for the other four.
We worked the Winchesters merrily
among them for the next few minutes,
more havoc and starting
more fights. Ten minutes after /
started the ball a-rolling by knocking
over the old fellow that was trying to
climb the tree, there wasn't bear left
with an unpunctured hide in the whole
herd, and they were fighting together
like school of Kilkenny cats. 1t was
n weird, savage scene, in among the
moonlight and shadows. seven grizzly
bears, maddened by bullet wounds,