The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-02-26
A MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE
HOW MEN. BEARS AND A MUU
TEAM CAME TOGETHER.

in q Tumultuous Roll and TuFo!e
Fight.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Hsrry's great ambition in life wa, e kill
real live grizzly, the genuine lnt-med
article. He had killed bears in Michigan,
moose in Canada, and deer In Coleado.
Tall, athletic, a good shot, skilful win the
long Norwegian snow shoes, kind-hArted,
and keenly enjoying sports that werspiced
with danger, he was just the compason one
would naturally prefer in the field and it
was with keen pleasure that prciised to
LET him know if there was any lance to
shoot "barn at the mining camp Montana
where l was going to try my for
time as an assayer. A 'W months
nsssed by. Harry and stoodat the door
of my log cabin at the het OF Trapper
creek, child of the snownearly 10000
feet above the sea. The cresof Old Badly
a thousand feet above US g,tened in the
moonlight Eternal snow Alf buried the
rude mining village and extended down the
mountain side for nearly iree miles. Be-
low us the canon of the c1ek lay like long
dark shadow, extending trough the forest,
across the snow fields, nd dividing the
mountains themselves. I"Come, Harry;
DON'T stand there gain at the moon. 1
admit that the scene 10 trand, impressive,
beautiful, but you ca study moonlight
effects on the summit d the Rockies any
night. We've work q hand now. Joe
killed beef at the pe1two miles down the
road. and SAYS he 'rekons some of them
,asky varmints will Do a-rooting around
xhar fora unOT-nin' so bmo on.
The trip down to til pen was soon made
interrupted only by Ihooting a deer that
had wandered above snow line. An old
deserted miners cain stood opposite the
cattle pens. Unusedfor years, the doors
and windows were gde, the roof was weak
from decay. and in gneral it had the dilap-
idated appearance tat is characteristic of
these abandoned projectors huts. 1t was
only high enough foTus to stand up in, and
was small, being bull into the bank, but it
had good stone chimney and fireplace,
where we could cooksome deer meat, and
was good hiding place from which to
watch the pen. While harry was building
the fire cut coupe of deer steaks and
tossed tbs haunch of venison into the
snow on the low roof. Our long snow
shoes or skees were placed in front Of the
door where we coulCstep into them quickly,
our rifios stood up II the window, and we
settled Down to a coaple of hours smoking
and talking. Suddenly there was the sound
of cracking snow crust. and low growl on
the mountain side soove US. Hist
Here it c,mesl Say, liten; there's two of
them. Wait; they will come down by the
cabin. Ion't fire until they get into the
road" Llasl l had forgotten the deer
meat so carlessly Thrown onto the roof. In
stead of going on to ne correl the bears
made uptheir minds hat steak in the
snow wasworth two ii the pen, and delibr
erately walked from tie hillside onto the
roof "Look out, Harry This roof won't
stand thai weight long We've got to get
out of her. If it getstoo hot for you slide
down the .oad to PULPIT Rock. You know
it. rll follow" Just then there was big
crack from beam ovrhead, and dirt be-
gan to fall "Run, Hrryl Rum" 1 whis-
pered. Ii an install he was on his
skees and eff down tn, road. AS 1 sprang
to the door the roof bjgan to break, almost
over me. ! caughtA glimpse of a huge
paw coming throuh. The temptation
was too great and l sbpped to fire, "once,
Just for luck !" througlthe roof The delay
was almost fatal, for, sprang out of the
door and into the shes, down came roof,
bear and all, AMI arouh each end of the
cabin came other glzzlies, their ugly
mouths grinning and thir beady eyes snap
X
twist and dodge saved TIE end Of the snow
shoe from the stroke of me of the bears
paws
No need of an overcoS now. Perspira-
ton started at every pos. 1t was a go-as-
you-please, free for all, and 1 pleased to go
as fast as possible.
"Why!" / hear yotask, "can bears run
fast9" Can't they, thdgh. Did you ever
try q race with one1 If you have not let
me give you bit of dvice. Don'ti Pull
pit rock was 1000 feefrom the cabin. 1t
was one Of those natual columns that are
SO common among the western crags.
About forty feet hih, accessible only on
one side. with topwenty feet square, it
was just the place When / reached it
Harry was nearly { the top, but in un-
fastening his rife, Ehich had caught on a
root, his foot slippd, and in recovering his
balance he droppa his rifle. There was
no time to recoveit. As Harry, said there
was trouble bnin" all around the base
of that coluin. Resting mo-
ment on top our refuge we looked
burst out laughir. "Well, Harry how do
you like your bar hunts / promised you
one, aud there a, three You have caught
your bear, anyhw." "I don't know, Bert;
it looks as thoua they had caught US. Nice,
socisble fellows lin't theyg' Then we took
stock of the silation. Harry's gun was
down below | ad mine, but his cartridges
would not fit and my belt of ammuni-
ton was lying my overcoat in the cabin.
invited Harryto go and get them, but he
said he was std tired" Nothing left but a
revolver. Their was nothing to do but wait
until morning. forming came soon, for down
below snow-lip every one was enjoying
merry spring me. The first rays of the
sun had hardt tinted the snowy crest of
Old Badly whn we heard a mule-drivsr
yelling at his tam. Here was a new peril.
The ore from he mines was taken down
the mountain huge trail wagons. Three
wagons were fsteded together and drawn
by fourteen ortifreen mules. The driver
rooe the mig wheeler" and guided his
team by sin e "jerk line" fastened to the
nigh lead" Aule. The wagon road was
very steep abke and below US. and barely
wide enough permit teams to pass.
The outer edge of the road dropped off
sharply dow to the bottom of the canon.
inc bears, sdl grouped in the road waiting
ior US to cone down, heard the noise and
looked inquIitive, so I touched them up
with the receiver just to keep their undi-
Wded attention, while Harry yelled at the
driver. VIZ yelled and fired in vain. A
lew momets more and the team turned
sne curve. Then too late the driver saw
nls danger. With a yell he sprang from his
saddle andstarted up q tree. The mules
Jumped abut, frantic with fear. The
brake Jerke loose, and the wagon, loaded
Win ore, ran down into the team. What
happened mkt is impossible to describe. 1t
vas chaos a CONFUSION, kicking, jump
ing, squealng, snorting mixture of mules
auo bears tangled up in harnesses and