The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-05
HUNTING RUSSIAN BEARS.
stories of Adyenture Related by an
America bunter Abro.d


are dear TO every man with sporting
mind in him. Fred Whishaw tells in
Outing, enough of all three to make
a sportsman want to hunt the Russian
bear.
This bear is a curious sort of animal
and has a way of circling around and
around his alternating den for hours
and miles, endeavoring 10 mislead the
hunters, perhaps, or maybe to get so
tired as to fall asleep easily and last
insly. This takes place at about the
time of the first hard snow, along in
November, when food gets scarce. and
! just about the time the wolves begin
/ to grow gaunt and fierce. The native
hunters keep track of the bears dens,
or the berlogas, and sell the informa-
! ton of their whereabouts to visiting
sportsmen for from 30 to so roubles a
i den: but Mr.. Whishaw being a sports
man, preferred to find his own dens;
so, having found a bear track near
/ Alonetz, where bears are plentiful he
climbed a tree near the track and
awaited developments, for you have
only to get out of the way and high
enough up to watch his bruinship, and
in the end you will find where the Sc
lected spot Isl" and having learned the
denis location he left the bear to sleep
comfortably till the time of the hunt.
Mr.. Whishaw so found 20 occupied
dens, and with these secrets locked i'm
1
The first bear that day was found in
! elegant style by the dogs. The "barin"
or local hunter, got up before the den
with the only rifle. all ready to shoot,
while Whishaw poked into the den
with a pole. He could feel the soft
body. but the bear wouldn't move.
Punches, jabs and talk were of no
avail, till at last the pole hit a tender
spot. Then 1.-The bear gave vent to a
dismal sob, full of pathos,' which made
the writer sorry for the poor beggar.
Then out came the bear, and before
the BARN had time to shoot the bear he
began to dance most extraordinarily
on his hind legs. a chain in his nose
clanking.
1--WE did the generous thing by him."
the writer says. I'VE let him go. He
was somebody's escaped dancing bear,
| returned to sleep in his native wilds
We had another adventure on this trip.
This was with real, live, get-up-and-
claw-the-hunter she bear that had four
newborn cubs to protect and temper
rather easily lost"
In case the rifle balls should go
crooked, a bear spear came mighty
handy to the Russian bear hunter
Russian bears are fools compared with
even a decent sized black bear in the
United States. The bear spear is
curiosity. Captain Mayne Reid in
THE Scalp Hunters tells about
rousing fight with the Pueblos in one
of their villages, during which one of
the white men fought with big war
rior armed with a lance. The white
man got separated from the warrior,
and was just making for him, when
the Indian got his lance into the white
man.
The white man ran up toward the In
dian, and in spite of the shaft slip
ping through his body, knitted the In
dian to death. If that Indian had had /
a Russian bear spear he would not /
have been killed, at least not by the |
spitted white man, for the Russian
bear spear is made with the especial
end in view of preventing the bear |
from running up to the hunter as the
white man did on the Indian.
DrIfted A, 900 NJ e..
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
On one of the coral reefs off the |
Marshall group, far away in the South |
Pacific. there rests a large railway |
transfer barge, which was carried by |
winds and currents from some point |
on the California coast to its present |
resting place. Its ownership, home I
port and the date of its loss are I'M /
known, but there 1t is, and it drifted |
from some point on the California
coast. John Crowley, mate of the mis- /
sionary brig Morning Star, who ar
rived here from Honolulu on the Aus |
tralia on a vacation trip, saw the |
barge, and gives the proofs of it's |
identity as far as it can be traced. |
Speaking about the barge yesterday, |
Crowley said:
I'VE ran into the Marshall group in |
September last in the course of our |
regular tour through the islands of the |
Morning Star, and our attention was |
attracted to this huge barge resting |
on a reef, where the sea had cast 1t. |
Its very presence was unusual in that |
far-away cline, and our curiosity was |
aroused at once. / made a careful eX- |
animation of 1t. but the only marks of |
Identification on it We're She words |
Transfer and the abbreviation CAL |
The rest of the name and the port had /
been obliterated, but enough remained /
to show that the barge came from Call |
fornia.
There were narrow gauge tracks on |
IL. and a couple of big cranes still in |
tact and very well preserved. ghe |
barge itself was pretty badly weather |
beaten and showed the marks OF many |
a storm, but II was still in very goud |
condition. IL was about $50 FEET long, |
built of heavy timbers securely fast |
ened together, and was able 20 resist |
the power of the sea in its long drift. |
The bottom had been copper covered, /
but the natives stripped that off. They /
made an attempt to break the craft up, |
too. but that was beyond their power, |
as they lacked all appliances to accom- |
plish their object.
1.-The experiences of that barge would /
be hard TO conjecture. 1t may have |
drifted the 1000 odd miles which divide /
our coast and the Marshalls in a very /
short space of time, or ii might have !
taken "a remarkably long period. The /
thing has interested me greatly, and l /
have tried since / came home to trace |
the ownership of the barge. but have |
not been successful. l do not believe |
that Il was lost from this harbor as IL |
would be practically impossible for |
such a craft TO get out of the bay and |
straits undetected. l am inclined to |
the opinion that IL was carried from /
somewhere on the lower coast, per- |
haps from san Pedro or San Diego. |
I Ia, h.. |