The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-10-13
FIELDS OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS AND DARING
DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

Used stones On the Bears-An Exciting
Episode in the Lower Canon of the
I;io Grande-A Maneater Chases 4
Hathcr OF a Staten Island Beach.
They were telling stories about
bears, when a man from the West
Clipped in with the following:
"When the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad was projected" he said, ''it
was the intention continue the road
through the lower canon, but it was
so narrow and its walls 50 preciDi, ous
that the attempt was abandoned, COR
the engineers could not determine q
line for want of a hand hold, much
less n foothold. 1t is said that no
men ever passed through the canon,
and that bat one Indian was ever
known to make the passage, and he
one unusually severe winter, when
the water froze in still pools.
:'In the month of August, 1856, ],
with two companions, went down into
the canon, and down the stream few
hundred feet, where further passage
was barred. to troll for trout. We
had camping outfit with us and re-
maiued one night. The next day,
with long string OF fish, we began
the ascent OF mountain which was
the wall of the canon. One OF us car
ried the string OF fish aud two Of us
divided the camping outfit rs our part
Of the burden.
eve had gone up the mountain
trail about 1000 feet when we heard a
cry from the man in the rear, who had
the fish. l was next above him, and,
turning quickly in response to his call,
1 saw him hurrying up the trail with
two black bears not more than 400
feet below him. The animals had
smeiled the fish, which he had dropped
on the trail, and were making haste
to get them, for my companion had
dropped them in his flight. He was
an experienced frontiersman, like my
self, but in his hurry he had forgotten
that lie could not run up mountain
at that altitude without becoming ex-
hausted in few moments.
sin an instant there came to my
mind the advice once given to me by
Gray Eagle, an old San Juan prospec-
tor, when he said: If you ever meet
bar in the mountains and they go fer
yer, don't go down nor don't so up,
fer the bar will beat yer, but Jest go
in a straight lire and the bar will do
the same thing, and he, havin' no
sense, will keep slippin' an slippin
down sideways
''Then I called / the man IN front
OF me, and few iu os down the loose
slide rock brought us to the string OF
fish and our frightened partner before
the bears made much headway.
Strangely enough, neither OF us
had a gun, but we took the fish and
moved cautiously in straight line,
the bears following our course until
We came to loose boulders.
''By that time the bears were within
900 feet OF US and we could hear them
granting. Then began lombard
meat no less fierce IN its character and
determination than Dewey's assault
on Manila. We threw rocks at the
animals and disconnected them, NOV
ing along slowly toward larger pro-
jectiles until we found one so large
that the strength of two of us was
necessary to use it. We took good
aim, waited until the enemy came a
little closer, and then started the big
stone down the steep mountain side.
"The first bear saw the danger and
tried to escape it, but he could not
veer quick enough and our bomb
struck him on the left flank and sent
him flying down the steep incline and
Into a gulch ten feet deep. He was
disabled, but his mate IA female, we
supposed) stood by him, aud we dared
not approach. Once she made feint
toward us, but fusillade of we'll
aimed shots made her wiser, and we
were soon on our way again toward
camp, which we reached in safety.
''In all my experience of seventeen
years in the Rocky Mountains and on
the frontier from Mexico to British
America, these were the first bears L
ever encountered, though l had many
times crossed their path, and could
have found them if had been on the
hunt"
Race For Lille With Shark.