Waterbury Democrat., 1901-11-14
EAGLES WHIP A BEAR.


 A fight to finish between 8 pair of eagles and. a bear few persons have seen, and the sportiest sport on the
 turf would hardly know which to bet
 on in such combat. Hans Larsen,
 a Norwegian fisherman who has been fishing for salmon in the Columbia, near Eagle Cliff, this season. saw desperate fight between two fine bald
 eagles that had their nest not far from his camp and half-grown bear.
 The eagles won.
 A huge sturgeon had been washed Up on the river bank and the eagles
 were using it to feed their young. One morning the eagles were serving breakfast to their young and one of them had flown up to the nest with q lot of pieces of sturgeon and the other was tearing away at the huge fish, when the bear came crashing through the brush to find the sturgeon he had scented. Bruin walked straight to the fish. But the eagle was not to be scared and he Tapped his wings and stood on the defensive.
 Big, fat turgeon do not come ashor
 ellOLis lIlG 1OiuInDld us OItCl IS llG5 used to and the carcass of this one was q prize, and it rightfully belonged to the eagles as the original discoverers. The bear paused a moment and then rushed at the eagle which gracefully eluded him and, soaring a short dis tance in the air, screamed bloody mur- der as a signal to his mate. She came sweeping down from the nest and joined forces with her mate in an at- tack on the bear, which was so busy tearing the sturgeon that he paid no attention to the royal birds till they landed like thunderbolts on his neck and rump and sank their talons in his flesh.
 The talons of Q full grown eagle are not to be sneezed at even by bear, and the howl of rage bruin let out showed that he had been both pained and hurt. He reared up on his launches and clawed sayagely at the birds, which whirled agilely about him. One would make a dash at his face and eyes and the other would hit him in the back of the neck like catapault. For ten minutes or so the bear stood up to the "Scratch,' and when he had scratching enough he began to show signs of wanting to get away. He did not exactly show the white feather, for the eagles had all the white feath- CTS, but he began edging off toward the brush, which was fifty feet distant
 As soon as he was on all fours the eagles were on him. and he would have to get on his launches to use his paws effectively. The blood was streaming down his face and showed i'll spots all over his glossy hide, but the great ob- ject of the eagles appeared to be to get at bruins eyes, and he appeared to be aware of this and was very anxious to prevent this When bruin turned his head toward the bushes they would | plump down on his head and try to l sink their talons in his eyes or to dip | them out with their sharp beaks and l drub his ears with their strong pin 1 ions until the poor bear did not know | ''where he was att
 All this time Larson was sitting | quietly in his boat watching what he | says was the most savage and enter | taining fight he has ever seen. It was. he judges, nearly half an hour from the time the bear came out of the | brush till he was able to drag himself | back under it's friendly cover, and he was the most dilapidated looking bear ina ginable. The eagles flew up on a tree and smoothed their ruffled plu- mage and congratulated each other on the outcome of the struggle. Then, as their eaglets were squawking for more they resumed their work of I carving and serving the sturgeon, and until it was all used up. which took several days, no animal offered to ap- proach it in the daytime at least.