Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-29

Ephraim in the rear. presume he watched
her out OF the tail of his eye, but his at
tention was central on the male in front.
The breathing. spell lasted about five min
utes and then the lions sprang in together.
This time the grizzly did not go down and
the trio went round and round the tree
fighting in desperation. Now and then one
OF the lions was rolled over and over by a
blow, only to come back again, and twice
the big bear was fairly down and held for
a minute. 1t was the hottest kind Of fight
ing for several minutes, and then the lions
suddenly drew off. l had a f~ieldglass with
me, and by its help / saw that a good deal
of damage had been done. The bear seemed
to have had one eye clawed out and to be
raked his full length, and the lions were
limping and covered with blood. l looked
for the fight to go on, but after watching
each other for a quarter of an hour the
combatants decided on making the affair a
draw. The lioness began creeping slowly
away and she was soon followed by the
male, and though the grizzly held the battle
field he uttered no growls of defiance at the
retreating foe. He acted like a bear who
was willing to let well enough alone, and
soon after having the field to himself he
numbered across the grass and disappeared
on the bush-covered slope.
mere Is III OLutT VIII ptdSl vi tue ldCb
Of the earth so ready to fight at the drop
of the hat as the grizzly bear. He is king
over everything and he realizes it and will
not be disputed. Just after a full meal he
might not rush forward to attack a man
unless challenged, but at the same time he
would not retreat. / have talked with In
dians in California. Nevada, Idaho and Mon
tana who had hunted the grizzly for years
and encountered him under all circum-
stances and none of them could say they
had ever seen him ratified. On the contrary,
all were agreed that there was no such
thing as scare in his composition. And yet
five OF us once saw old Ephraim so fright
ened that a prairie wolf could have kept
him on the run.
Fight of the BurrO.
I'VE had camped on a level spot on a
mountain side in Montana and though we
had occupied 1t for five days and hunted
far and near, no signs OF grizzly had been
seen. The sixth morning was rainy and after
breakfast we sat about and gave our traps
an o~verhauling. We had three mules and
one burro in the pack train. The mules
were hobbled out, but the burro had his
freedom. How it happened that he was on
the east side of the camp by himself, while
the mules were together on the west, ! can't
u " GuNh NAo NhS - SNN
had eaten his fill and stood beside a bush
about 200 feet from the tents and his atti-
tude was so eulky and detected that 1t had
been remarked. OF a sudden We were
startled by a'choking sort of noise from the
little beast and as we looked up he stood
almost nose to nose with a grizzly. The
bear had come down a gully beyond the
bush, having doubtless located our camp, and
his intention was to walk right in on us
without any Introduction. He didn't get
sight OF the burro till he turned the bush.
THE sight came to us SO suddenly that nc
man could raise a hand. Bear and burro
stood there for what seemed a full minute,
though ten second Vas probably the limit.
and then dashed forward. All of
us believed that he either bit the
bear or hit him with a hoof,
as the grizzly staggered about.
Whether he did or not. II was probably the
sudden meeting and the awful bray that up
set bruins nerves. He uttered a loud
'woof!' and wheeled to the left, but in his
fright he ran against a rock. was knocked
down and rolled over, The burro ad-
vanced on him, braying at the top of his
voice and bounding up and down with legs
as stiff as ircn and as the bear got on his
feet again he hadn't the courage OF a rab-
bit. He lodged the rock and disappeared
over the edge OF the level and by this time
we were all on our feet. We saw him rolling
over and over down the slope for a distance