The Nome nugget. (Nome, Alaska) 1901-1904, 1904-06-04
WITH A
SHOT GUN
F. \. King Kills a Mons
ter Grizzly Bear
a NARROW ESCAPE
Thrilling Story of a Battle With a
Bear Near the SaWtOOth
Mountains.
A NARROW ESCAPE

Probably the most remarkable escape
from awful death was that of f. Y.
King and his partner n. p. Peterson,
who ran the Nugget road house. across
the Nome river divide. These people
have in addition to their road house
duties, been prospecting on Home Stake
creek, at the base of the SawtOoth
mountains. On the morning of May 30
they started to their customary pros
pecting, when they were surprised to
see the tracks of monstrous pair OF
bears, different from any they had ever
seen before. They at once retraced
their steps and procured their guns,
which consisted of u 1903 repeating
Savage rifle and a II bore shot gun,
the latter being carried by Mr.. King.
After II tedious "mush' of several
miles they encountered brown bear
which Mr.. King at once recognized,
having had many experiences with the
same species in the Rocky Mountains,
in the western states, as the Ursus feroZ
described bv Lewis and Clark in
their travels. but better known as the
American Grizzly, the largest of the
bear family and the most ferOciOus ami
NAL in the world. With quick move
Peterson was on his knees and with a
quick aim sent a leaden missil on it's
voyage of destruction. The bullet
struck, but not vital spot and with a
scream of rage and pain the wounded
animal gave spring over the cliffs,
and rolled almost to the bottom, some
300 feet below, where she regained her
equilibrium and vanished among the
rocks. Chargined at The failure Peter
son turned and was Mortified by seeing
another large grizzly about twice as
large as the other, spring upon his
partner, MIR. King, and was more hor-
ritied when he remembered that his
was the only available gun, and as the
magazine was out of repair, could only
be reloaded by removing the single
shell by hand. With snarl of anger
the bear sprang at its foe, but King,
; with the habitual presence of mind in
herent in the backwOods hunter, thrust
his paltry weapon into the face of the
fierce assailant, which was advancing
with open mouth and extended claws.
Remember that the only weapon on
> hand was II bore shot gun, Reming-
ton, which is the kind used for hunting
ptarmga and other small game. Ia
the twinkling of an eye the bear had
grasped the muzzle of the gun in his
teeth and was crunching it like so much
wood. Towering two feet higher than
King, the latter realized that the only
hope for him was to pull the trigger
and maybe stop the beast till they Sc
cured safety in flight. A loud report, a
, sullen roar that almost shook the
mountains, the bear gave a spring high
into the air and fell with dull thud
to the ground.
The men beat u quick and mutual re-
treat and upon covering considerable
ground, were surprised to see that the
bear was lying quite still on the spot
where it had fallen. They waited for
a few minutes, in the meantime reload
ing the rifle, the shot gun being broken
at the stock and the muzZle left in the
mouth Of the bear. In recounting the
story it seems that the deadly peril the
men were in did not enter at all into
their thoughts.
After throwing several rocks at q
safe distance they ventured further,
and unreal ana marvellous as it seems,
found the bear stone dead. Their good
angel had been at their side, else in
stead of striking the spinal cord, which
was found to be the case, the result
would have been another of the mys-
FERROUS disappearance for which this
country is noted. Upon finding the
beast was killed, the men went back
for sled. and after several hours, man.
aged to get the bear to the bottom of
the cliff, where they loaded it on the
sled, after disembOweling it. They
took it to the Nugget roadhouse. and
then started for Nome with nine strong
dogs to draw the heavy load. 1t took
them three days to reach the Sour
Dough roadhouse, where it was put in
cold storage. The big brute was
brought to town early this morning by
w. j. Bunger, and taken to the Maple
Leaf restaurant. 1t will be placed on
exhibition tomorrow afternoon at Col
den Gate hall.
The remarkable thing was the enOr-
nous power of the jaws shown by the
deep indentations made In the barrel OF
the gun by the bears teeth; not only
the barrels being bent, but marks were
made in the steel connecting piece
about one-fourth inch in depth. Then
there was the finding of a grizzly at
| tulS lar lOfbucTIl luOltuuc: Ouu W O0P
the climax, the strangeness and seem
ingly preposterous statement OF fact
that grizzly bear weing $50 pounds
was killed by discharge of bird shot
in his mouth, and with the aid OF no
other weapon than that. When one
remembers that the Ursus ferOz is the
most vicious of all animals, not except
ing the jungle lion, and that the most
experienced hunters quake and turn
pale at even the thoughts Of participate
ing in such a fray, it makes one marvel
the more.
The only humorous side to the story
is in hearing Mr.. King describe his
sensations. He is Swiss, with broad
accent, and in relating his narrative