The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-09-05
FIGHTING GRIZZLIES.
THREE STARVING MEN FACE
EIGHT FEROCIOUS BEARS.
Starvation Renders tho Men Desperate
"A Terrible Hand-to-Han Con-
hlct between Two Griz-
xlIcs and One Man.

OF Humboldt county on the Russ house
register few days ago recalled to his
friends the story OF desperate fight
with grizzlies in the early days says
the San Francisco Examiner.
1t was all In the fall OF 1851. and
three starving men crawled through a
thick growth OF Humboldt county
timber and found themselves facing
eight monster grizzly bears.
Goaded to desperation by hunger
the men determined to attack the
ferocious animals. The heart OF
Thomas Seabring failed as the little
party drew near the bears and he
sought safety by climbing tree. The
other men. S. X. Wood and Isaac
Wilson. threw prudence to the winds
and advanced to within fifty yards OF
the bears. Wood fired his rife and
the nearest bear fell biting and tear
ing the ground as though in the
agonies of death. While Wood was
reloading his rifle Wilson brought
down a bear. Five OF the grizzlies
retreated up ravine. but one shaggy
monster remained with her fallen COM
panions. She sat erect on her launches
and turned her fierce eyes on the men
as though daring them to battle.
Wilson. awed by her aspect, ran for
a tree. while Wood tried to reload his
gun, but found himself unable to ram
the ball down on the powder. While
In this predicament the grizzly that
had not fed rushed at him. Wood
succeeded in getting into small buck
eye tree and used his gun to beat of
the bear as she attacked the tree with
the intention of shaking him out of it.
While he was engaged in fighting off
this bear, Wood, to his horror. saw
the animal he had wounded rise and
rush toward him. No blows that he
could infiict on the wounded animal
could check her. At the first spring
she made the tree broke and the bears
jumped tor Wood. He gained his feet
and made with all speed down the
stood about thirty yards away. He
reached the tree with the wounded
bear at his heels and selling the trunk.
he swung his body around SO as to give
the bear room to pass him, which she
did, plunging headlong down the
mountain about twenty yards.
Before Wood could, with his failing
strength, swing himself into the tree
the second bear bounded up and seized
his right ankle. BY this time the
wounded bear returned, and as Wood
fell she snapped at his face He
lodged and she caught his left shout
der.
Then commenced terrific struggle.
The maddened animals tugged in OPP
posite directions Mt Woods ankle and
shoulder. and he was in imminent
danger of being torn to pieces He
fought as best he could. but each ex-
ertion he put forth only intensified the
rage of the bears.
When he was almost fainting with
pain the bear that had not been
wounded dropped his ankle and trotted
slowly after his companions up the
ravine. Then the wounded bear let
go her hold on his shoulder Wood
sank back on the ground and lay per-
fectly quiet us though dead. hardly
daring to breathe. The grizzly stood !
majestlcally over him, watching for
the slightest movement and snarling
with rage. The pain that racked the
mans frame was frightful, and he !
risked his life in an effort to assume
an easier position. At the first move
ment the grizzly. roaring furiously,
rushed at him. She showed her nose
close to his face and shifted Mt him,
but Wood was again motionless and
the bear. raising her head, gave vent
to unearthly screams.
Wood, knowing that his life de-
pended on it, remained motionless,
and in a few moments the bear trotted
after her companions up the ravine
When he attempted to rise Wood
found that his right hip was dislocG.ted
and his shoulder was chewed to the
bone, while his clothing had been
stripped from his body and his flesh
had been chewed in hundred places.
Inch by inch he painfully dragged
himself from the spot until Seabring
and Wilson, accompanied by David A.
Buck, the latter of whom had been
left to guard the camp. found him and
carried him to their quarters
At this spot the party remained
twelve days, subsisting on the meat of
the bear that had been killed. They
were lost in the mountains, but finally
Wood, despite his agony, insisted upon
being tied to a horse and accompany
ing his friends on their search for n
path to civilization. During the ten
days that followed every step by the
horse that Wood rode caused unspeak-
able torture to the rider but Wood
bore it like martyr and an occasional
groan was all the complaint that es-
capped his lips.
Finally they found road out OF the
mountains and reached the farm OF
Mrs. Mark West thirty miles from
Sonoma, where Wood was cared for
and in six weeks was able to Join his
friends in San Francisco.
The injuries inflicted by the griz-
zlics made Wood a cripple for life and
eventually were the cause of his death.
and 1t was his son who told in the
Russ house few days ago of the fight
with the grizzlies.
The Bicycle Again.
In one section of Broolxlvn mos