, 1896-04-13
BRUIN AND THE BOAT
THE DEER STORY MAN SIGHED, BUT
SAD NOT A WORD.

They had been telling all sorts Of
hunting stories. some almost too :airac-
ulous 10 be believed, except by hunters
who had had experiences and knew
what strage things sometimes occur far
away amid the fores. wilds when there
are 10 witnesses. The last mar lad told
of deer hunting in the water, and a
squat. heavy set man sitting i'll the COR
her seemed particularly interested in
the tale.
THAT reminds me-" he said, VIXEN
he had u chance to como III. "of an ex-
pe,ience / once had up in the lake re-
gion Of Canada. A parry of us were in
camp there. along in the fall, and were
having great sport with the rod and
gun. We had secured specimens OF all
the game and fish for which the section
was noted except a bear, and Of that
tracks had been reported not fnr from
camp. and We weIe to try for t,uiu Us
soon as we had made prapsr rropaTa-
tons. Tho day before we were to start
ont on tho ear hunt l had gone off up
the shore Of the lake i'll Il light canoe
we had to Hsh for couple CT hours
and get Il fry for supper. | had nothing
with me in tho canoe except my fishing
outfit and no sort of "A weapon unless
tho canoe paddle might be called me.
But Il man didn't need n weapon to
catch fish with, so I gave no Thought to
it. l had found a nice cave up The cove
about a mile from camp, and there l
stopped the canoe abont 80 feet from
shore in deep water and threw out my
line. Luck WAS good, and I had pulled
in five Or six fine fellows and was hav-
ing more fun than anybody, except the
fisherman, when / was startled by Il
splash from the thicket lining the shore,
and the next minute n whopping big
bear was making for me licl,ety split.
To say that l was scared doesn't half
express it. ! was paralyzed. l didn't
even have sense enough left to grab my
paddle and try to gaj away. l simply
caught it up and held it in my hand as
l would u club and waited. But tho
bear didn't wait. He was very evident
ly hungry, or ho never would have at.
tackled mo out there in the boat. and he
was coming straight fer NE. l waited
for him to get close enough to bat him
one, and then 1 gave it to him with tho
canoe paddle square between the eyes.
1t dazed him a little, but it was far moro
disastrous to tho paddle. and when /
Strengthened up from delivering tho
blow 1 had only about two feet of tho
paddle left in my hand. The rest Of it,
splintcred. was floating in the wake of
the bear. He gave himself Il shake after
l hit him, and the next minute he had
caught the side Of the canoe with one of
his big paws and was manifesting II
AS he weighed about 400 pounds and
was as powerful ms n horse it did not
require. II very strong haul to settle that
part of the proceeding early, and instead
of his coming aboard witirIme the canoo
was upset, and I went into the water
with him.
by this time a portion Of my vita
had returned, and l had sense enough,
as the boat went toward the bear, to get
off into the water with the boat between
the bear and me. 1 was Il good swim.
mer and had Il faint idea if I got head
ed toward the shore Icould outswim my
enemy and get away, go l turned, as
soon as l got Strengthened out i'll the
lake. and put back the other way. Tho
bear in the meantime had started
around tho end Of the boat. coming my
way. 1 don't know what it was. wheth-
err inspiration n fear or bravery, but
certainly it was something out of tho
ordinary. for Us ! went around one end
Df tl,n l-.t ,,I tho Ea,r Srou Mt tl,n eth
er or quito near it l was struck with an
idea, and instead of trying speed with
the bear for the shore ( concluded to
try wits with him right where we were.
So I swung on to tho end of tho canoe,
which was bottom side up, and as the
bear came toward me, / tilted the other
end mp. aud with a sudden jerk, dropped
the inverted boat owe the bears head.
The next minute l was on top of the
boat with the bear under me. I guess
he didn't know what had happened to
him, for he didn't seem to do anything
under there except to bump his head
against tho bottom and growl. Thought
ut first he might have sense enough to
dive and come out on the other side;
but, like turkeys that walk into a pen
through q hole heading from the outside
into it, and, never one looking down
for tho hole to get out Mt, run around in
a crazy kind Of q way till they are
caught, that bear staid under the boat
with me on top Of it. humping his head
and growing. BY this time I was feel
ing q good deal like Napoleon CROSSING
the Alps, or like some other great hero.
and felt still more like it rs l noticed
the bumping and the growing growing
less every minute until finally they
ceased altogether. / didn't understand
that quite aud began to wonder if the
bear wasn't catching OIL to himself and
thinking Of the easiest way 10 get at his
dinner, when over in the clear water of
the lake, a dozen feet or SO from tho
boat, I saw something big and dark
slowly going toward the bottom and
drifting away. Another look convinced
me it was my bear, and another minute
found mo swimming for tho shore at 40
miles an hour, mora or less. Halt en-
hour later / WINS op the spot again with
three men in q big canoe. and still bulf
an hour later found us on shore with
the body Of the bear, which we.had re-
covered from the water. It wal a clear
. . Of human intelligence against
hrute force. with the intelliaence the
victor, Of courfe, but when any more
oouteses like that are booked [ desfre It
Mdsfstood that / am not ccanpetinR."
Ths man who hnd told the deer story
hnavad 4 pFufonnd etgh nHd 1uukod At