The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-06-15
PUT BRUIN TO FLIGHT
SWEEPING VICTORY OF TWO
BILLIES ON A RANCH.
Butted Thorn Over the Rocks-Two
Bears Who Tried to Break Up a Goat
Farm, but Who Came to urief In the
Attempt. "

'"~ mountains III Tue Tlne creek re
gions, says the New York Sun, he hat
40 idea that one of the worst enemies
he would have to contend with would
be black bears, He leased nearly 1900
acres of mountain land, off which the
hemlocks, pine and hardwood trees
had been cut. A growth of underbrush
afforded excellent browsing, and as
Hunsicker had raised many goat
down in the Schuylkill coal regions,
where they had little else but laurel to
eat, he thought that the animals
would thrive on the fresh s~hrubbery
of the Pine Creek hills. Today he has
a drove of $50 goats, among them be-
Ing several of the most obstreperous
billy goats that ever paved dust or
butted an adversary. And it is a good
thing for Hunsicker that these fight
Ing goats were on hand; otherwise his
Kids would have suffered worse than
they did from the bears. Pine Creek
bears are famous for their t~rout-catch-
ing propensities, and the small farm
ers back in the Puterbaugh Noun
tains have suffered owing to their taste
for lamb. Hunsicker's goats and kids
were something new for the Pine
Creek bears. For the first season or
two, therefore, the goats were unmo-
Tested. The flock fiourished, and more
than one half-grown goat was slaugh-
tered n shipped to an unsuspecting
customer as the meat of fawn or doe.
Indeed Soma poon1a mbo Lno-, .uoniao.
hen they eat it declare that the meat
from Jerry Hunsicker's goat farm has
a superb flavor. But last fall the a
got onto the value of kid and Hunsick-
er's troubles began. Black bears have
killed and carried away at least a
dozen of his October kids, and before
the winter is over he fears that the
seasons profits will have been spoiled.
he has had something more than
trouble with his goats this winter,
though, and the bears have been the
cause of it. The first winter that he
lived In the Pine Greek region he did
some trapping for furs. He captured
several black bears, and from the skins
or two of the largest he had a great
coat made, with which to keep warm
while out in the mountains taking care
OF his goats. The coat comes almost
to his toes, and with a cap made of
pearsk1n on his head the big goatherd
has more of the appearance of a black
bear than a man. He is convinced of
that fact himself, since a week ago
a rousing old billy goat mistook him
for a bear. Hunsicker has one partic-
ularly pugnacious goat that he has
named Weyler because of his ugly dis
position. Weyler has more than once
stood between the flock of frightened
KIDS and she gots and a marauding
bear. The goats roam at will over
their masters preserve, and since the
SHOWS of winter have fallen they have
been forced to seek in the ravines the
moss and other tender browsing that
the high grounds no longer afford. The
other day Hunsicker missed one of his
incest half-grown goats and made I'D
his mind that it had fallen a victim
to some bear. He determined to keep
a lookout for Bruin, and the next day.
when the goats were turned out from
the shelter shacks, he prepared to fol-
low them to their browsing grounds.
knew the %ravine, nearly two miles
away, in which the goats were feed
ing at that time, and he started to
make a detour and work his way dow
from the head of the ravine. hinkine
that by so doing he might run across
the bear. He was armed with a heavy
revolver. He was never much of a shot
with a rifle, but his comrades in the
service during the civil war
say that as a pistol shot he is hard
beat. He does all his bear. fox and
wildcat hunting with a pistol, and even
when making the rounds of his traps
he carries nothing else in the way of
firearms.
He reached the head of the ravine
and was making his way down along
the little stream under the hemlocks
the point where he knew he
would find the goats, when he discov-
cred fresh bear tracks in the snow.
There were the tracks of two hears
He had gone only a short distance fur
when he came upon the remains
Of n of his kids. He was sure. then
hat he was on the track of the thiev-
ing bears, and he knew, too, that the
fresh tracks meant that the maraud-
ers were already on their way to the
lock for breakfast. Half a mile fur
her he heard the frightened bleating
his goats. Gaining a slight eleva-
ion from which he could obtain a view
across the brush, he saw a good-sized
black bear held at bay by one of the
billy goats, who was prancing in front
the apparently half-frightened bear
like a bantam rooster about a
Shanghai. The second bear he could
lot see, and in order to get a still bet
.er view of the situation he crawled
Upon a log, one end of which project
ID V a ledge of rocks. Picking over
.hese rocks Hunsicker caught sight of
he second bear down in the ravine,
acting very queerly. Bruin appeared
be in distress, for he held his paws
)ver his abdomen and every now and
hen volled round much as a schoolboy
youlo do after a session with green
This bear interested Hun
ticker so much that he forgot the
,ther. Indeed, he was so IN
n the bears antics that he failed to
the approach OF the p%ugnacious
Weyler was the cause of the
distress. Hunsicker's bearskin