Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-11-10
A BEAR HUNT.

The party had divided up and spread out |
over the country In twos and threes. |
Long Dog and l and young buck named |
Two Knives struck Off together up
through the cottonwood timber that
fringes the river for width Of half q |
mile or SO. Before going far we bowled |
over fine buck elk, and started Two |
Knives back to camp with the carcass
Long Dog and kept on up through the
cottonwoods. An hour or SO after parting
company with young Two Knives we
caught sight OF big silver tip bear on the
other side OF the river. He was standing
on his hind legs, digging the touchwood
out of a hollow tree. This is favoritc
pastime of bears, and particularly brown
bears and silver tips, who have keen
partiality for the big, fat inch grubs that
make their home In tie decayed cotton
wood.
The bear was 80 absorbed In his pur-
suit that we had no trouble in wheeling
our cayuses around and retrcating out of
sight without attracting attention. 1t
was about 800 yards from where we stood
to the bear, and Long Dog and l both
agreed TINT to pump lead ut Il silver tip Mt
that distance would be merelya waste Of
good ammunition.
"what had we better do, Long Dog'"
said I.
ugh, heap KILL" replied the Injun;
and pointing down the river, he led the
way in an almost opposite direction frOrl
the bear We continued on down to a
ford, where a bend in the river hid us
from the bear, and crossed over. Riding
on up the other side short distance we
hitched the bronchos behind clump of box
| alders and proceeded cautiously toward
/, the bear The immediate edge of the river
| was thickly fringcd with box alders and
| mountain willows, and through these we
ut length began to crawl on hands and
knees, with the idea of taking the silver
| tip by surprise at close quarters. With
an old seasoned Injun hunter Of
! Long Dogs caliber leading the way,
this part of the proceeding was easy
enough He wormed and twisted through
the thick willows as slick as beaver
without ever swapping dead twig. All
had to do was to crawl along in the
trail close behind We had almost got to
the point where we had been expecting to
be able to use our Winchesters with some
certainty when Long Dog halted, and,
without utterlng a grunt reached back
and tapped me cautiously on the back
with his moccasin. AS the old Injun
looked back over his shoulder and raised
his finger us warning for me to lay low,
his piercing black eyes glowed and
twinkled like a pair of black diamonds
| with excitement.
or course, naturally supposed he was
| merely worked up some over suddenly
catching sight Of the bear, perhaps, lit
tic nearer than he had been expecting.
Seeing me peer inquiringly through the
brush In the direction of the touchwood
tree. Long Dog raised one dusky finger,
and, without moving another muscle In
his body, pointed 1t toward a clump Of
willows standing, should say, thirty feet
to the right Of the tree, and about th1et
times that distance from us. The space
between our ambush and the clump was
quite open, and was traversed by q deel
path that led up from the water. Tht
] deer path led straight through the willow
clump, and. following the direction Ol
Long Dogs finger, saw, in the narrow
, alleylikc deer path, a long, catlike tai
waving to and fro. 1t was the tail Of ,
! full grown mountain lion, an object famil
lar enough to me, for lhad killed rount
, dozen of the varmint In my time. N.
part Of the lion WAS visible save his tail
, for the willows were thick between u
and his body.
. Long Dog seemed to comprehend tn
, situation at once, for when glanced a
his finger the next moment it had turne,
like a weather vane and was pointing Il
the direction of the bear. With the keel
perception Of a savage, the old Injul
! ! hunter knew at glance that the mountain
lion was lying there watching the move
mcnts of the bear, and hadn't the leas
!, suspicion OF our own presence On
: situation was a thrilling one, even for Al
!. old hunter From where we lay, scarcel
: daring to draw breath for fear of betray
ing our presence, we could see one side G
. the silver tips big hairy body as he stoo
mp and clawed away at the hollow tree
. and on the other hand there was tn
, mountain lions four foot tail waving I
{ and fro in the narrow deer path like til
: tail of an angry cat. All of a sudder
n hiff! went a big tawny object through til
y air as quickly and noiselessly as il it ha
been the flash Of a shadow. But now tn
a silence, which had hardly been violate
:. ut all by the industrious bear at the tret
!. was broken rudely by a whole wootlful {
|. savage ronrs, youfs, snaps, snarls an
4 stand offs. Under the cottonwood tire
stood a big mountain lion In an attitud
|, OF defiance, scowling at the bear, whic
q looked anxious to attack him and "
q half inclined to back away.
There Is always something unspeakabl
| COmicAl about u Deur W uic, WHlC0eVe
way you take him, and even under the e.
citing conditions of the occasion the Ol
n silver tip seemed to me to wear clowl
+ fish look. He stood there few moment
weaving his big numbering body bacl
ward and forward, as though he didn
= care q pine needle whether the lion 4
tended tackling him again or not. Y
we could see the blood gently oozir
u out Of the long silvery wool on his shou
70 der, where the mountain lion had gougt
into him when he made the spring; for Il
in tawny shadow we had seen flash throue
n, t,e air was the lion as he sprang on Il
r, unsuspecting bear.
70 A low excited "Ugh'" from Long Dt
and another motion Of his finger caus'
~ me to glance again into the clump Of W
lows. Take my head for coyote bait
!. the lions tail wasn't still In the deer pat
h a-thrashing like fury. Before you cou
\. say "whisky" twice, however, bin we
!. another shadow out Of the willows, al
when looked for the tail agnin 1t W
gone. Instead Of one mountain lion,
q we had first thought, the willows Ia
sheltered two.
y And now the circus opened up WI
IS savage earnestness. The second lion
.; square on the silver tips withers and W
~ nigh toppled him over. The other OF
W which had evidently been waiting Tor