Mexico weekly ledger., 1902-03-13

AA1& @Ao -
and no tonderfoot has any business
monkeying with him. So tenacious Of
life is he that he viii cling to 1t long
enough to kill a dozen men, If he
could get his clutches on them, after
be has been shot all TO pieces. l have
known a number Of men who were
badly disfgured and crippled for life
by these dangerous animals, and |
have had several very close calls from
them myself when hunting deer in the
coast range. During the time / speak
OF grizzlies were very numerous in the
coast range and a hunter was liable to
meet one when be was least expecting
it. Nose Williams was the champion
bear hunter CT the coast range. He
was a why little fellow, as quick and
active as a cat and his craw was brim-
full Of what the CalifOrnians call
sand" He was as cool as a cucum-
Der when he faced a grizzly and being
a dead shot he always got his bear
when be went after him. He won his
spurs in the Sierra Nevada mountains
when he was but sixteen years old by
killing a large grizzly that no man
dared to follow TO his lair. A reward
of $3.50 was offered by teamsters, whose
cattle this bear had been in the habit
of killing, and Nose thought that he
needed this money in his business and
this is the way that he went after that
old bears scalp and got it. One night
the bear killed a valuable OK near the
house where Williams lived and the
next morning Nose took his rifle and
followed old cuffy's trail up the noun
tain TO where it entered a dense thick
ct OF chaparral. Here he had to gel
down on all fours and crawl under the
brush for several hundred yards until
he came TO a small open spot, moi
more than twenty feet wide, and In
the middle OF IL was the old bear'i
bed. The bears bed was a big pile o.
dry brush and leaves and as he wa
lying with his back toMose, be could moi
tell where 10 shoot, but In pushing hi
gun through the brush he snapped I
twig and this awakened the bear anC
caused him to raise his head TO listen
This was lust what the boy wanted, S,
be drew a bead on the bear on the bur
Of the ear and pulled the trigger; tn,
big grizzly died without a struggle
To peel that bears hide of and dral
1t out Of that brush was a big job, bu
Nose accomplished 1t all the sam
and, what was more, he got the re
ward OF $3.50 in gold.
1t was sometime during the iiftie
that Williams came down to the coas
range and started a cattle ranch Of
the Arroyo Bayon, in Alameda coun
ty, about IS miles northeast Of Sal
Jose. At that time a. l.. HubbarI
was a cattle raiser in the beautiful
little San Ysabel valley that lie
about ten miles east Of Mt. Hamilton
on whose western peak the great Lie
Observatory now stands. Hubbart
was one Of a few Mormons in CalifoI
MIA that refused to obey Brigham
Young when he ordered all Of them +
return to Salt Lake, soon after tn
Mountain Meadow massacre in 1851
During the fall OF 1859 Williams an
) Hubbard did a profitable bushes
hunting bear and deer fer the SaI
francisco market. Williams did th
hunting and Hubbard ran the pac.
train, and as both bear and deer weF
plentiful, Nose had no trouble I
keeping Hubbard on the road. On
day In June, 1869, | was hunting 0
the high range that lies between tn
Arroyo Bayou and Alameda Creel
and about noon / came 10 the camp {
Williams, at a little spring just belo'
the summit on the east side, and b
, asked me TO stop and take Dime
with him. / o found that he WI
a good talker and the reader can rel
assured that / was an interested III
tener whilst he was telling the follow
ing bear stories: 81 stopped wit
! Hubbard one night at his cabin
, San Ysabel valley and early mel
: morning We started down the vale
on a hunt for big game. When v
reached the lower end OF the valley v
saw a big grizzly In a patch Of India
clover and Hubbard asked me 10 stC
and let him shoot it. He rode to witt
In forty rods Of the bear and then h
him have 1t, but the bullet did M
strike a vital spot and the only efiei
it had was to make the bear real igh
ing mad. The horse that HubbaI
was riding had a habit Of balkir
when he was spurred hard and, in h
eagerness TO get away, Hubbard 70
e got this,a at that time, important fac
and dug his spurs into the mustang
sides as hard as he could. When Il
1 horse felt the cruel spurs that threa
c eded to tear his ribs loose, he stifen'
e his legs and refused 10 bulge, and,
mad as a hornet and with blood la b
eye, the bear charged straight for Il
horseand with a single blow from B
powerful paw, knocked him heel
overhead. When the mustang v
knocked from under him Hubba.
; pitched forward and landed right
the arms Of the bear and th0ugI
that he was a goner. Right there q
d fun commenced, and / witnessed d
q the most laughable things ey
,saw. The bear stood stright up wi'
: Hubbard In bis arms and expected
see him crush his skull like an e
/, shell. but when be took his head In
bis mouth and brought hts poweri
Jaws together he only had Hubbart
old wooden hat Ia his mouth, for HI
bard had slipped josn between {
bears forelegs 80 far that his be
J. could not be reached. Then old Gu.
sat down and took a fresh hold, a
K vben he stood up again and open
e his mouth 10 make another grab !
y Hubbard's head the old hat drop
square on Il and thai was all the be