The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-12
YUKON BRUIN is BAD.

Klondike King Tells of a Lively Incl
dent ON the Trail-Bears Dispute the
Way.
"Talkin of bear"
The Klondike King paused medita-
lively, and the group on the hotel porch
hitched their chairs up closer.
Talking of bear" he went on; 'now
up in the northern country there Is va
rious kinds On the Little Peliy, for
instance, they come down that thick to
feed on the salmon that in the summer
time that you can't get an Indian or
white to go higher than days travel
to the place And up in the Rampant
mountains there's a curious kind of
| bear, called the side-hill grizzly
| That's because he's travelled on the
| side hill ever since the flood, and the
two legs on the down-hil side is twice
as long as the two on the uphill. And
be can outrun jack rabbit when he
| gets steam up. Dangerous? eaten
you? Bless you, no All man has to
| do is circle down the hill and run the
| other way You see. that throws Mr..
| Bears long legs up hill, and the short
ones down, Yes. he's mighty pecu-
| liar creature, but that wasn't what L
started In to tell about.
They've got another kind OF bear up
on the Yukon, and his legs Is all right,
too. He's called the bald-face grizzly,
and he's as big as he Is bad. It's only
fool white man that thinks of goin
huntin' him. Indians got too much
boss sense. But there's one thing about
the bald-face that a man has to learn;
he never gives trail to mortal creature
If you see him comm, and you value
your skin, why, get out of his path Ii
you don't there's bound to be trouble.
If the bald-face met Beelzebub, he'd
not give him an inch. Oh, he's sell
fish beggar take my word for 1t. But
] had to learn all this. Didn't know
anything about bear when ! went into
the country, excepting when | was
youngster I'd seen heap of cinnamons
of that little, black kind. And they
was nothn' to be scared at
well, after we'd got settled down
on our claim, ! went up the hill one
day loollin' for likely piece of 5ircfi
to make an axshandle for the one my
partnerd broke. But it was pretty
hard to find the right kind, and | kept
a-goin' and a-goin'. for nigh on two
hours. Wasn't In no hurry to make my
choice, you see, for | was headin' down
to the Forks all the time, where | was
eoin to borrow logbit from old Joe
Gee. When 7 started I'd put couple of
sour dough biscuits and some SOW belly
in my pocket In case ] might get hum
cry. And I'm tellin you that little
lunch came In right handy before I
was done with it.
"Bime-by | hit upon the likeliest lit
tie birch saplln' right in the middle of
a cump of jack pine. Just as | raised
my AK | happened to cast my eyes down
the hill There was big bear comm
up, swingin' along on all tours right in
my direction. It was bald-face, but
little | knew about such kind,
Jest watch me scare him. T says
to myself, and stayed out of sight In
the trees.
We'll. | waited till he was about a
hundred feet off then / runs into the
open.
"'Ooohl ooh!' / holered at him, ex-
pectin him to make off like chain
lightning.
Make off? He jest throwed up his
thtdu lOI one SUpu loUht anu ldhie a.
comm.
"Ooh! ooh,' l hollered louder'n ever.
But he Jest came a-comin
'Consarn YOU | says to myself, get
tin mad. I'll make you jump the
trail
so ] grabs my hat, and wavin and
holerip', starts down the hill to meet
him. A big sugar pine had went down
in windfall and lay about breast
high, ] stops jest behind 1t, old bald
face comm all the time. 1t was jest
then that fear took me- ] yelled like
Comanche as he raised to come over the |
log, and fired my hat full in his face. |
Then | lit out.
"Say | rounded the end of that log |
and put down the hill at tWominute |
clip, old bald-face reachin' for me at |
every jump. At the bottom was |
broad, open fiat, quarter of a mile to |
timber and full of niger heads. | |
knew If / slipped | was goner, but | |
hit only the high places till you couldn't |
"a seen my trail for smoke And the f!
old devil snorting hot after me- Mid |
strikin' the heel of my moccasin with |
his claw. Tell you I was dom some tall |
guessin, jest about then. ! knew he |
had the wind of me, and that | could |