The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-03-24
LUCK OF A TBEDBRFO0T.
Discovered a Gold Mine While Trying to
Get Away From "a Bear.


John B. Sargent of San Francisco. who
has been in the Kootenai mining districts
for the past two months, tells remark
able story Of the way a tenderfoot from
Montreal discovered gold mine in that
faraway mining region. The young man,
who was clerk, was spending few weeks
with friend engaged in mining and put
In his time fishing and hunting. The To-
cation of his friends cabin was far UP to-
ward the headwaters of one of the tribu-
taries of the Kootenai river far from any
other prospector, and in section where
the bears were not only numerous but in
quisitive and troublesome.
When both men were away from the
cabin, it was necessary to carefully close
up all the openings, and the bears had an
unpleasant habit of climbing into the
cabin, and, besides getting away with all
the provisions in sight, playing football
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 q hunting
excursion they saw three bears investigat-
ing the surroundings of the cabin, coca
sionally stopping to roll about a camp ket-
tie which had been thoughtlessly left out
side.
Both men were armed with rifles, and,
as they succeeded in getting near the ami
mails without being perceived, were able to
take deliberate aim. AS they delivered
their fire two Of the bears fell, the third
scampering off up the mountain, AS they
supposed both animals dead, they neglect
ed to reload and had approached to within
a few feet of the PROSTATE bears when the
largest suddenly sprang to his feet, and,
with fierce roar, made directly for them.
The young man from the city had never
cultivated close acquaintance with the
bear family and did the first thing that oc-
Cured to handicapped his weapon and
sprinted for the nearest tree, about 100
yards away and growing on the edge of a
guleh IL or Is feet deep The bear stopped
few seconds to sniff at the rifle, and then,
contemptuously tossing it aside, continued
the chase The hunter reached the tree
and had climbed to the lower limbs when
his pursuer reached it 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 well, and when near
the upper branches the young fellow found,
to his Gisfnay, that the bear was entirely
too close for comfort. At that moment,
however, his friend, who had recovered
from his fright and reloaded shot the ami
NAL 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 the soil
and as it leaned farther and farther over
the gulch it became evident that unless he
could scramble 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 accomplished more than half
the distance the last root gave way, and
there seemed to be nothing between him
and death or serious injury. His grip
closed upon the limb to which he was
clinging, and in another moment the top
of the tree rested on the bottom of the IA,
vine, while the thoroughly frightened man
dropped upon the carcass Of the dead bear,
himself almost dead with fright
But the strangest feature of the adven-
ture was that in falling over the tree had
removed 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. ,"
Denver Republican,
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