The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-28


hunters did not sally forth to kill the bear
as they burned to do. They restrained
themselves nobly.
The following morning the dogs were en-
oouraged TO track the bear. and the heavily
| armed hunters were eager 20 kill the ami
NAL; so ! went with them. Presently IL
was evident that the dogs that had seen the
size OF the bear the previous night were not
ksenly enthusiastic for the hunt. They
| lost the trail, and gleetully barked at blue
and gray grouse that they flushed and
drove to perch in trees. attempted TO
| encourage q bright collie that had attached
| himself TO me to hunt the bear by showing
him the BEARS track stamped into the mud
by creek-ths print was about a foot
| long-but be ignored the track and geily
waGged bis tail and barked delightsdly at
non-belligerent blue grouse that cooked its
head and spread its tail on q limb high
above US. Plainly the dog said: See here,
| old boy, have lost no bears. Let's go
grouse hunting" and we went.
No, the hunters did not kill the mother
| bear. 1.-THE blamed dogs threw off on us"
was their brief explanation of the cause of
their failure. The youngest hunter, a moon
faced. callow youth, whose most dangerous
adventure Ia lands agricultural had been
the Staying of savage hen, afterward
conhded in me. Said he:
II saw the enormous beast. 1t was as
|
white teeth. I saw it sit up in pocket,
and 1t was feet high.
| understood the case perfectly, and as
sured him that sensible men preferred to
hunt goats and deer and grouse, whose flesh
was good to eat, instead of hunting bears,
| whose flesh was rank and unfit for food.
| He agreed with me and expressed his views
relative to bears in general, and cinnamon
| bears in particular tersely, saying intensely:
''Deg-gast bears, anyhow; they are no
| good"
At the hotel one morning about O'Clock
Mrs. Moore was on her way to the chicken
| house to let the hens out. She met large
black bear face to face. This was good
natured, jolly sort Of bear, and polite,
too He greeted Mrs, Moore with a pig
| like grunt, which was the best he could do,
and gave her the trail, stepping into the
woods. Mrs. Moore returned TO the house
to tell Of the bear, but the animal had dis
| appeared into the forest and could not be
| found. This bear was probably the mate
| OF the large black bear that Mr.. Moore shot
in front of his hotel fewiweeks before ar
| rived, and whose skin was nailed to large
tree close by the hotel.
Last season." he said, 'ths berry crop
| was failure on the eastern slope of the
| Cascades. The bears depend on berries to
get into condition to hibernate. Scores,
yes, hundreds, of hungry bears roamed
| these highlands" he indicated the whole
Chelan region with outstretched, sweeping
arm, sin search of food. Tney had become
| 80 accustomed to the presence Of men that
they no longer feared them. You see, the
| prospectors do not carry rifles through
these rugged highlands. No man can afford
to carry pound more than the food that is
necessary to enable him to live for few
days.
"Well the bears had seen and met so
many unarmed men that they cared moth
ing for them. The animals were SO bold
| that they would not give you the trail when
| you met them. They amused themselves
1 by freeing pros pectors and sitting at the base
| OF the tree for hours to annoy them. They
| did not kill any man, nor did they really
and savHgely attack any of the prospectors,
but they had lot of fun with the boys last
| summer and led merry life.
"As | said, the berry crop was total
failure. Such gang of lean, hungry bears
as roamed these highlands was never before
seen. | was working pack train from the
head of Lake Chelan to Horseshoe Basin at
the time, and l saw bears every day and
met them in the trail frequently. Pros
rectors who had crossed the divide told me
| that the run of humpbacked salmon IN the
Skaget was exceedingly heavy, that the
bears were congregating on the headwaters
| of the Skaget to catch and eat salmon.
| All bears that live in region where the
| rivers carry salmon catch the tired fish and
| eat Iuem. nave repeatedly seen bears
catch salmon. The facS that there were
| plenty of salmon to be had for the catching
| just over the mountain had evidently been
| mentioned to the bears of the Chean dis
i trict. At any rate, the bears possessed the
| information, aad in September they began
to migrate to the west.
| Late in that month | saw twenty-three
bears in one day. All of them were walk
| ing along the trail that leads through Cas-
| cade pass. All of them we're lean and pre-
sumably hungry, and all of them had their
| noses pointed to the west. At one time two
cinnamon bears followed slowly after my
pack train, and black and a cinnamon
| bear were walking in the trail ahead of me-
| had to turn out of the tFail to let the bears
pass my pack animals"
II New York sportsmen desire to kill
bears, let them enter the Chelan region in
early September and hunt in the mount
| aims that wall in the head weteBs of Bridge
creek, Agnes creek and the Stehekin river,
and they will find bears a plenty.
How do you get to Chelan lakes At pres
ent the nearest railroad terminus is Coulee
| city, on the Northern Pacific railroad in
Washington. From there to Lake Chelan
is fifty-five miles. A daily stage runs be-
tween the lake and Coulee. On the lake
Chelan, at the foot of the lake. to the head
OF the lake. From the head Of the lake into
the mountains pack horses are necessary
and and-well, | may as well say it-look
out for rattlesnakes, pou will see plenty of
| them.
| REEQ DRINKING ANIMALS