The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-22

Babe, the leader of the pack, gave a cry,
which was instantly followed by Old Bill,
another valuable dog, and the ress of the
pack. The hunters, who had passed over
the tracks without seeing them, immedi-
ately turned back and dismounted to in
vestigate. By following the dogs, which
were held in leash, they soon come 90
ground more open, where immense tracks
and trail of the beast proclaimed him to
be Old Sachem, the patriarch of the noun
tains, whose tracks had been often seen
from time to time for the last six years,
but who had proved himself too cunning
for those who cared to risk following him
into his retreats. They followed the trail
for about eight miles until the signs be-
came so fresh that they knew they were
not far behind. The trail had led them
across creek bottoms, UP steep gulches and
mountain sides, and over snow fields form
two to five feet deep. The snow crust
bore up the hunters and their horses. while
frequently and in many places the big
beast they were following had broken
through and thus made his course very
hard one. The horses, too, of the hunters
were about tagged out and the horse that
Charlie Baxter rode had given out entirely
and his rider was left behind.
When the signs showed the nearness Of
the bear the whole pack was loosed and
away they went in full cry, which made
the mountains ring. The two remaining
hunters followed on horseback at a slow
gait and as best they could.
1t was not many minutes before the
hunters from a rise heard the hounds
about mile away in dense grove of
willows and small quaking asps at the
head of Cow creek in the Book cliffs BAY
ing the bear, which, from the noise made,
was more than holding his own.
The fact that there were no large trees.
rocks or other cover to retreat to in case
,Jl.l -1O olre Oh nor
on the hunters, and the sound of brea King
willows and the crash of falling saplings
would have struck terror to the heart of
less brave men than our hunters. As ii
was, Jack seemed to have no stomach for
the fight while Steve, knowing by the
sound of the yelps and cries that his dogs
were getting the worst of IL and being
killed, cooked his gun and ventured into
the thicket. The bear and the dogs had
cleared a space of about fifty feet ard
were so earnestly engaged that they did
not see Steve, while Steve, seeing his dead
and wounded dogs lying about and the I'M
equal fight going on, thought 1t time, II
he wished to save any of his bounds, 70
take a hand in the affair. Bruins pre-oc-
cupation gave Steve his opportunity and
he took careful aim at the heart, knowing
his own life would not be worth much II
he simply wounded him. Just as Steve
pulled the trigger the bear gave a quick
movement aud the ball entered his finsk,
ranging toward his head. The shot,
though, proved sure and fatal and the
huge brute tumbled forward on his head
to the ground. Immediately he was COM
pletely covered by the dogs, although he
dug deep burrows in the ground with his
! immense claws and in his death struggles
broke willow bushes and saplings as large
as a mans arm like pipe stems, he never
regained his feet again and in a very short
time he was dead.
The bear was found in size well up TO
the tales told of him at numerous camp
fires.
While one stroke of his claw had crush
ed in the head of Babe, the leader OF ms
hounds. and half torn his head from his
body. another blow had crushed tine ribs
and disemboweled Old Bill, the next hest
dog in the pack. Others were terribly
mauled. This was great loss to Steve
as he valued both dogs at over $lOO apiece.