El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-06

| keep at Day WnOle regiment, ana ira
ditions say many is the man who has
| lost his life while attempting to do the
impossible at this place. 1t was too.
| impossible to starve old Geronimo out.
| for he always kept plenty of provisions
| in store. and then the myriads of game
| to be found on the mesa, furnished
| plenty of the best of resi- meat for his
| table. All these dangers however, are
a thing of the past and one can travel
alone over any part of that section,
without fear of loss of life or anything
else.
be entertained with Saturday =: it'd
'On the northern part of this mesa
there heads another canon that flows
out southwark and emptieS into the
Verde Canon. The walls of this can
on are from six to ten feet high, and
from fifteen to twenty feet from brink
to brink. with occasionally a place
where little side stream flows in. thus
affording an easy way to get down to
the bottom. Until 1 visited this canon
had no idea what an accommodating
thing a box canon was, but I always
feel like taking off my hat when l meet
up with one.
After winding our way over the
trail till we emerged on the mesa we
made direct TO rthe ruins of Geronimo's
houses and corrals. The houses and
:,
but time and weather had played hav-
oc with them. and now nothing re-
mains but piles of adobes and rock. for
since Geronimo's capture there has
been no one to keep them in a state of
repair. and probably they had not
been used for many a day prior to that
time. AS i stood there and viewed
the ruins and looked back at what a
long and tedious trail one had to come
over to get there. / was filled with adj
miration for the works of nature for
in that alone was evidence that she
will certainly provide for her children.
If only they will take advantage of it
Not far from the ruins was a small
hill. from the bottom of which gushed
forth stream of pure, clear mountain
water. Here under grove of walnut
trees is where we made our camp.
While we were in camp we made an
examination of the ruins and among
the int eresting things we discovered
was a number of flint arrow heads.
the shafts having long since rotted
away. and an old flint lock musket and
any amount of broken pottery. The
musket | brought to Ell Paso on nv
first visit and sold it to a tourist from
Meridian. Miss. for twenty-five dollars
gold.
We had been hunting on the mesa
for about five days. and l was getting
to be pretty good shot could bring
down a deer almost every time at the
first shot had killed six by that
time. | felt pretty big. to express it
mild. and | had made several brags
about how / would not be afraid to en-
counter a dozen bears at once soon
learned however that one bear can
make it pretty lively for a person if
he is inclined that way.
The boys had had a great deal of
fun at my expense. about my hunting
but | took it all in good part How
ever. one morning l concluded that il
had gone far enough. consequently l
saddled up my pony, took my gun and
fifty rounds of ammunition and a |
small lunch and started for the open
country to the north. Jokingly | told
the boys that if there were any bear
on the mesa / would bring one home:
little did / dream however that III
would carry out my vaunt During the
morning / killed a couple of deer and
had hung them up in a tree to await |
my return in the evening. but I had
seen no bear. and in fact / was not |
overly anxious to meet up with any.
About noon / arrived at the little |
box canon. and here | picketed my !
horse. and sat down under a tree to |
eat my lunch. Once or twice. while !
eating. J noticed faint movement in |
n little clup of bushes about a quarter |
of mile to the windward. | thought
of course IL was a deer and. l FASTENED |
10 sneak up on it. to see if | could get |
n shot. had worked my way along |
until I was within fifty yards of the |
clump. and as theer was no further |
cover for me | had to show up in the |
open. as yet the animal had not shown |
itself and / began to fear that I had |
had all my trouble for nothing never |
theleSS I kept NV rifle ready for ouick
action I had not taken a dozen steps
from the last clump of bushes when |
the animal showed itself and instead |
of deer as ] had thought. ] found Il |
big cinnamon bear in my way. Mr. |
Bruin however did not care about hav-
ing any dealings with me that morning |
and he made off in the opposite direc- |
ton. / very foolishly shot in his di- !
rectiOn to see him run faster. My bull |
let struck a rock and glanced over and |
struck the bear in the fore-shoulder |
AT this treatment he turned in a rage |
and came for me. AS the bear turned |
on me my first thought was how | !
wished | had never come out hunting |
alone. There was absolutely nothing |
that ] could take cover behind. except |
some trees. and as Bruin could climb !
them well as | could ! thought it |
not prudent to risk them and the |
little box canon. To the canon I went. |
as fast as | could and as luck would |
have it the place where | was headed |
for happened to be small side creek |
and / had no trouble in getting in the /
canon; thence I turned and doubled |
back. down the canon and pretty soon
| came to a place where l could get out.
before | reached this however 7 heard |
the bear tumble in at the same place |
had and of course | was anxious to get |
mi nr, inc he t<,y, r,f ha how L