Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-28
THE BEARS FIND.
A Tusslc with Bruin Leads to n Fall
md q EOrIunc.

, n
and Fortune.
John b. Sargent OF San Francisco. who
has been in the Kootenay mining districts
for the past two months, tells a remark
able story of the way a tenderfoot from
Montreal discovered a gold mine in that
far away mining region. The young man,
who was a clerk, was spending few weeks
with friend engaged in mining, and put
in his time fishing and hunting, relates the
Denver Republican The location of his
friends cabin was far up toward the head
waters OF one of the tributaries of the
Kootenay river, far from any other pros
pector, and in a section where the bears
were not only numerous, but inquisitive
and troublesome
When both men were away from the
cabin IL was necessary to carefully close
up all the openings as the bears had an
unpleasant habit of climbing into the cabin,
and. besides getting away with all the pro-
visions in sight, playing foot ball with the
cooking utensils. The bears were of the
common brown variety, none of them very
large, and were not considered dangerous;
in fact their worst trait of character was
the familiarity which bred anger rather
than contempt. One day as the two friends
returned from a hunting excursion they
saw three bears investigating the surround
ings of the cabin, occasionally stopping to
roll about a camp kettle which had been
thoughtlessly left outside.
Roth men were armed with rifles and as
they succeeded in getting near the animals
without being perceived, were able TO take
deliberate aim. AS they delivered their
fire. two of the bears fell. the third scam
pering off up the mountain. As they sup
posed both animals dead, they neglected to
reload and had approached to within few
feet of the PROSTATE bears when the larg-
est suddenly sprang to his feet, and with a
fierce roar, mada Directly for them.
The young man from the city had never
cultivated a close acquaintance with the
bear family and did the first thing that
occurred to him-drOpped his weapon and
sprinted for the nearest tree. about 100
yards away, and growing on the edge of
gulch twelve or fifteen feet deep. The bear
stopped a few seconds to sniff at the rife.
and then contemptuously tossing 1t aside
continued the chase. The hunter reached
the tree and had climbed to the lower limbs
when his pursuer reached ii, and without
any hesitation commenced the ascent. This
was something that the amateur huntsman
had not calculated upon. and he at once
proceeded to climb higher. in the hope that
his antagonist might get tired and give up.
The tree leaned somewhat over the ravine,
making the climbing easy, but the fact
favored the bear as we'll, and when near
the upper branches the young fellow found 20
his dismay that the bear was entirely too
close for comfort. At that moment, how
ever. his friend who had recovered from his
fright. and reloaded, shot the animal through
the head.
Now another danger manifested Itself. The
combined weight of the man and the bear
had been too much for the slender hold OF
the roots OF the tree upon tine soil, ana as II
leaned further and further over the gulch
IL became evident that unless he could
scrc mble down the man would be thrown
upon the rocks at the bottom. Clinging to
one limb after another, he made desperate
efforts to get down but before he had ac-
complished more than half the distance the
last root gave way and there seemed to he
nothing between him and death or serious
injury. His grip closed upon the limb TO
which he was clnging and In another mo-
ment the top OF the tree rested on the bot,
tom OF the rayine, while the thoroughly
frightened man dropped upon the carcass OF
the dead bear, himself almost dead win
fright.
But the strangest feature OF the adyon-
ture was that In falling over the tree had re-
moved the earth from a four-foot vein OF
rich quartz, the existence OF which had been
entirely unsupported. Now the young man
from Montreal Is a horny handed miner,
making good income out OF his claim,
which he has named THE Bear"