Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1893-03-28
snooIINo A oRlzzLY.
HuxrxR's rnRILLrxo xxrxRrxxor
IN THE Rocxixs.

Discovering no bear, ! advanced slow-
y and cautiously. Suddenly l per
celved rank, peculiar odor; Il remind
cd me Of that I encountered Ut the Zoo
In Philadelphia, In 1884, while I stood
contemplating some bears In tho pen
below. i now knew was very close to
bear, and that from tho location II
must DO grizzly. Oh! how frightened
was. | had never met grizzly; what
II should do I hardly knew. The
thought of being alone too, and out OF
sight and hearing Of Hank, all made me
CULVER and shske like an aspen. While
thus medltating, and looking In every
direction, and trembling from head to
foot, soon saw the cause Of the odor,
standing on all fours, with its tall
toward me, quietly digging In hillside.
My heart went like q trip hammer,
could hear the blood rushing up through
my carotlds, and feel It's impact against
the base Of my brain; my throat was
dry and my hands trembled 40 ] grasped
my rife.
! surveyed the huge brute few sec
onds and saw that he was about eighty
yards away. stood on q hog-back, or
ridge, and between the bear and myself
was a rayine thirty feet deep and filed
with a thicket OF underbrush. The
grizzly stood on clear ground. 1t did
not take long to see that | had the ad-
vantage; this was the head OF the canon |;
to my right was black thicket OF pine,
In front was the animal, to my left the
canon stretched away to the lake. A
small sapllng grew where I stood; i let
myself down on my knees and toes, and
projected my piece over branch OF the
sapllng. was waiting for the bear to
give me an exposure Of Its side.
BY this time had become more COM
posed; my nerves had resumed their
usual tranquility; was thinking OF
what an everlasting shame II would be
to my conscience to steal away and let
that magnificent beast get of With Its
life; and while thus cogitatlng the bear
slowly moved into the position desired,
and when there with steady nerve
glanced aloug the blue barrel Of steel
aud fixed the sights on a line with a
spot about where I thought Its heart lay,
held It there second and pulled the
trigger. Bang! went the magnificent
arm, and simultaneously the grizzly
leaped into the air, uttering loud, pro-
longed cry OF pain. Through the smoke
I saw Il fall on one side and quickly re-
cover itself, Its head was toward me |;
with mouth wide open aud head erect 1t
began the charge. threw another
cartridge Into the barrel. l looked, and
| Il had reached the bottom OF the canon
aud was making Its way through the
brush, blowing and snuffing. coolly
awaited Its emeTgence, but II never came
out. Midway the thicket could see
some Of Its branches qulvering, but
could not see the bear.
At this juncture another grizzly,
larger than the Que shot, came out OF the
pine thlcket to my right aud bounded
down to the spot Of the qulvering bushes
10 the bottom of the canon, and was also
lost to sight; I did not have any time or
opportunity to shoot II. Immediately
behind me In the timber heard the cry
or wall Of still another bear. This again
terrified me beyond expression. i sat
there gazing ut that thicket one hour by
the watch, IL 80 TO I 80 r. NJ, October
10, 1892, and no bear appeared. All was
still as death, and from inaction began
to get chilly. No amount OF money
could have induced me to venture down
to those two mammoth brutes In that
canon. did not even know that one
was dead, and was painfully aware that
one Mt least was untouched. So believ-
Ing that skilful retreat IL as good or bet
ter than poor victory, | decided to re-
turn aud get achievements In the shape
Of Hank.
I did so, and when we reached the
spot we advanced abreast, Queen In
terror at our heels, into the thlcket. We
found one bear stone dead, but the
other had gOne.-FOrest and Stream.