El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-27
HUNTING IN THE
SIERRA MADRE
An UnyarniSted Tale OfAn Experience With
A Bear. The Finest Game Preserve
On the Continent.

rubbing the mud in well, that every
particle of skin was completely COW
cred. this coat of mud kept the juice OF
meat from escaping. and when we took
the turkey out of the fire. after letting
it roast for about an hour, and broke
off the mud all the feathers and skin
came off. leaving the meat as nice,
sweet and juicy as if it had been pre-
pared by Delmonico himself. In cut
ting into the meat we found that 1t
was as tender as a piece of veal. and
it tasted far better. in fact L don't
think l ever tasted better meat
After a big feast on that turkey, and
a good fill of the sparkling beverage
that was flowing down that streamlet,
from a spring at the base of noun
tain not far distant, we again turned
ourselves toward camp. and in think
ing over the success o fthe morning l
was pretty well satisfied with the
mornings work, and would have been
content to go home without killing
another animal, but fate was against
me and I had to kill another animal
before camp was reached.
Where we had camped for dinner
was on the edge of a beautiful little
valley, almost completely surrounded
by low but rugged foothills, and in
OTQeT u TcdCu CduuP VIC huu " pass
over them. AS we drew near the foot
hills, perceived one canon that SEEM
ed easy to ascent, and up that we start
ed. Ere long however, it proved to be
a very hard canon to ascend, for there
were many huge boulders and small
cataractS to be passed, which greatly
taxed the agility of our animals; the
burros stood it much better than my
steed did however. In many places 1
was compelled to dismount and lead
my horse. However. with all the hard
work. 1 made much better time than
did my Mexican and his animals, and
when 1 reached the head of the canon
l was about a quarter of a mile ahead
of the him.
This canon headed on a small mesa
of about fifty thousand acres, and as
1 looked out across it 1 was quite I'M
prepared for the sight that met my
eyes,-there was only one thing to mar
the beauty of the scene and that was
huge silver tip, feeding on late crop
of berries. He stood not over thirty
yards from me, and to the windward,
and as yet he had not perceived me.
And there 1 sat on my horse debating
with myself, as to whether l should
risk a fight with him, or go back home
without a bear skin. I finally conclud-
1 thought that if I did not kill him 1
could get away with my life anyway,
as 1 had a very sure footed steed. But
when 1 brought my 1920 to bear on
him, | was that excited that it took me
fully fifteen minutes before l could
bring myself down to fire. with any
certainty, and there he stood all that
time, peacefully feeding unconscious
that not far distant, was horrid hu-
man being plotting on his life. How
ever my conscience did not trouble
me in the least, until after l had shot.
At my shot over keeled the bear, and
1 thrust my gun in the scabbard, and
dismounted and rushed forward
shouting Il have killed bear" 1 was
pretty proud just at that moment,
however 1 did not cover half the dis
lance to the bear when up he jumped,
and started my way, all prepared to
fold me in his loving embrace, and
then I discovered that 1 had forgot
very appropriate maxim. that was
prudence is the better part Of valor,"
and as / viewed that animal coming
my way, my valor sunk about fifty
points. There was only one safe course
for me to take and that was to reach
the back of my horse, this / did in
what seemed an lncreditable short
SPACE OIL ClIn6. AIIeT TcdCuiuS
die however my spirits again rose to
pretty near normal and l concluded
to give old bruin one of my cards that
in case he wished to visit me at any
time, he would know who 1 was and
whence l came
l again brought my rifle to bear and
put a bullet through his brain. thus
ending all furthr cares for him. This
time however. L was not in such rush
to get to the carcass, consequently l
sat on my horse for about ten minutes,
but as the bear made no move, / con-
cluded that he was dead, and l tried to
get the pony to go to him, but he
would only snort and move in the OPP
posite direction. l then dismounted
and dropped the reins over the horses
head to keep him there till 1 came
back. The carcass was lying by the
side of a small clump of bushes. and
1 thought the safest plan would be to
approach it from the back, and in case
he moved to loose no time in getting
to the other side of the bushes. 1 came
up from the rear and lifted one of his
hind legs this cause dthe body to roll
a little, and as 1 was rather ticklish
anyway and thought that the animal
was going to get up. consequently 1
tried to jump over that clump of BUSH
es, but they were little higher than
thought they were. and my feet be-
came entangled, in their tops, and
when 1 landed it was on my face, on
some sharp stones, thus cutting me
up pretty badly. Up 1 jumped as
quick as 1 could expecting every min
ute to be torn to pieces. but when L
saw that the animal had not made a
move, 1 then realized what fool had
made of myself.
Pretty soon my mOZO arrived, and
said that he had heard the shots and
tried to get there as quickly as posi-