Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-06-07
GRIZZLY AND BISOSS FIGHT.
1t Was Battle to the Death, and There
Was No survivor.

1T Was a Battle to the Death, and Thero
Was No survivor.
The following story was told us by a
stawart Indian, who, having been
among the French half breeds a good
deal, had received from them the French
name of Baptiste. He said:
"One summer, long ago, l was with a
large party of Indians We were max
ing long journey over the rolling
prairies, from one place to another.
That we might have plenty of meat to
eat, two of us were appointed to keep
about two days journey ahead of the
company to hunt and to kill all the
game we could.
"The reason why we kept so far apart
was because we had dogs and babies and
women in our party, and you know they
will all make much noise, so they would
scare the animals far away.
We'll, we two hunters kept well ahead.
Some days we had good luck and killed
great deal, and then other days we did
not kill much. What we got we cached,
so that the party could easily find it by
the sign we gave them when they came
along We always put it near the trail
for them. Then we would push on,
looking for more.
in the rolling prairies the hills are
like the great waves of the sea, only
some of the hills are about a mile apart,
with the valleys between. When we
We're coming to the top of one of these
swells. or hills, we would creep up very
carefully in the long grass and look over
down in the valley on the other side.
Sometimes we would see game to shoot
and often there was nothing at all.
When there was no sign of anything
worth stopping to shoot, as we were
after big game, having many mouths to
feed, we would hurry across to the next
hilltop and carefully look over into the
next valley.
One day as we had passed several val
eys and had seen not ing that was worth
our stopping to shoot, we came to the
top of pretty lar-e hill and cautiously
looked over. There was a sight that
we shall never forg t.
Right down bef re us, within gun
shot, was very large grizzly bear and
two big buffalo bul S. Well for us the
wind was blowing from them to us.
They were very al cry-looking and were
preparing for hi fight. The butfaloes
seemed to know tn t the bar was an
ugly customer, AMI he looked as if he
did not know how to manage the two of
them at once.
For quite while they kept up what
you might call a pretense of battle The
bulls would paw the ground, and keep
up a constant roaring. This only made
the bear the more angry, and if there
had only been one he would soon have
got his big claws upon him, but there
Icing two made hlm cautious.
After a while b, tn of the bulls sud-
denly lowered their heads and charged
the bear AS they rushed at him
he quickly arose upon his launches,
and, as they clio. ID in upon him, he
seized one of them by the head and
neck, and, with a sudden jerk. so quickly
broke his neck that he fell down as dead
Us a stone
1.-The older buffalo, which had charged
at the same time, gave the bear fear
full thrust with his sharp horns, one of
which pierced him between the ribs,
causing AN ugly wound from which the
blood soon began to flow. The bear,
having killed the other buffalo, tried to
sieze hold of this one also, but he, hav-
ing given the bear the ugly wound,
quickly sprang back out of his reach.
He ran off for a little distance, but, as
the bear did not follow him, he came
back again. There they stood looking at
~,
very cautious AS they kept moving
around it seemed to us as though the buff
falo had so come round to the windward
side of the bear that he caught the scentof
the blood from the wound The smell of
blood always eXcites to fury these
animals, and so, lowering his head, he
furiously charged at his wounded yet
still savage enemy. The bear rose up on
his hind quarters to receive him, and,
sezing him as he did the other, killed
him on the spot.
I'VE saw him go from one buffalo to
another and smell them both, but he did
not offer to tear or eat either. We could
see that he was very badly wounded from
the way he kept twitching his side, from
which the blood kept running 1t was
an ugly wound and he was a very sick
bear, and so as he looked so cross we
were not in a hurry to let him know any
thing about us,
Imagine if you can, " said Baptist,,
while his eyes flashed at the recollection
of this royal battle, "how excited we
were as we lay there in the long grass
and watched his great fight,
"Then we thought: Now if we can
only kill that wounded bear we will have
plenty of meat for the whole camp for
good while But, although we had our
guns, we were none too anxious to begin
the battle with such bear as that one
so we crouched low and watched him.
1t was very fortunate that the wind,
which was quite a breeze, blew as it did
He never seemed to suspect that other
foes were near.
After a while he went off a little
distance and lay down in the long grass,
which rose up so high around him that
we could not see him. We waited long
for him to get up, but as he did not, and