The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-12-03
A New Bear Story.

"A new Bear STORY.
Jim Underhill, of Boyd, paid friendly
visit to the CHRONICLE sanctum yester-
day and in the course of pleasant con-
versation something was said about a
bear when Jim asked the CHRONICLE
man if he had ever heard of the adven-
TUE he had with bear one time. The
scribe modestly replied that he had not
had that pleasure when Jim related the
following which we give in, as nearly as
possible, his own words.
''It was in the early sixties and was
down at Santa Cruz, California, where
had job helping to build saw mill.
A large force of men was employed and,
as was the custom in those days, we
kept one man employed all the time
hunting game for the camp. The name
by which this particular hunter was
known was that of Redheaded Charley.
never knew his real name. He was as
fine marksman as ever pulled trigger
and as all kinds of game was plentiful in
those days Redheaded Charley had little
trouble keeping the camp we'll supplied.
Just at this particular time the woods
were full of grizzlies and Charley and 1
had made it up to have hunt one Sun
day when I had knocked off work. We
started early in the morning and made
for point called Chase's Landing,
about five miles distant from camp,
Charley carrying dinner bucket and
warer flask. We had reached fiat where
there was a pretty dense covering of
hazel brush and thicket when we spied,
on hillside about seventy-five yards
from us, big female grizzley. 1t was
the first time had been so near live
bear in its native jungle and you bet 1
began to get mighty weak about the
knees. Presently Charly said 'I'm go
ing to shoot, and if 1 should happen to
miss her you must look out for yourself
1t was no sooner said than he let fly and
the shot evidently took effect but not
seriously and the next instant the bear
came numbering down the hill towards.
us as fast as her heels could carry her.
We lost no time, you may be sure, seek
ing the safety of two friendly fir trees
which we hastily climbed, taking the
precaution of bringing our guns with US.
The two trees were at convenient speak
ing distance and the bear had taken to
the tree that Charley had climbed, but
the brush was SO thick around the root
of Charley's tree that 1 could not get
sight of the bear. Still 1 was as much
afraid to get down from the tree as
Charley was and there that bear kept
the two of us from about O'Clock in the
morning, all that day and all the next
night till nearly 10 o'clock the following
morning"
"Why did not Charley shoot her?"
asked the scribe.
"That's what Pm going to tell you,"
answered Jim. "You see it was before
the days of breech-loaders and Charley
had unfortunately dropped his ramrod
and could not, therefore, load his gun,
had got terribly hungry at the last and
bethought me of plan to do away
with that bear that worked like charm
l told Charley to pour good charge of
powder into his gun, which he did.
Then he took a bullet and placed it inside
the muzzle of his rifle, pressing it in
little with his finger. Then he took his
knife and whitfield the round part that
projected out of the muzzle till it was
bright and clear as new silver quarter.
The he pointed the gun fairly at me and
took careful aim at the bullet and fired.
My ball struck the one in Charley's gun
square in the center and drove it home
to the breach. A moment more and
the bear lay dead at the foot of Cbarley's
tree with the two bullets in it's heart.''