The St. Mary banner., 1906-09-29

Spencer Pitcher was a noted hunt
er, who came with the first settlers
All was known far and near only by
the name Of Spence. He was five
feet eight inches high and weighed
1-D pounds; his speed and endurance
were remarkable, and perhaps he sell
dom, if ever, found his equal. Now
TIE majority Of the inhabitants work
| ed most OF the time and hunted oc-
casionally, but Spence hunted most Of
the time and worked occasionally. He
was hunting deer one rainy day about
! the first of November, when he dis
covered a bear, but his gun missed
| fire. Ordinarily his flintlOck was sure
ti.e, but the rain had wet the charge,
| and by the time he found that his
gun had become useless the bear had
begun to make eff Now bear when
started will almost invariably run up
hill where he has a decided advant-
! age over his pursuer if he has the
! chance; but as they We're then on the
summit of a hill, there was no other
| course open but down hill. So the
! bear started on full run and Spence
| was close at his heels There was
some three inches of snow, and the
continued ram had made it slippery
| and Slushy, and some fallen timber
lay in the way, but the bear made
good time and Spence kept we'll UP in
ho hioI hn
| made to crush in the bears cranium
with the muzzle end of his rifle, it
would just seem to Sip about half
length ahead, and every time he
struck it lessened his own speed, so
that he had to put in his best to catch
up again.
They soon struck level land where
the woods were clear of logs and
brush. Here they both settled down
into dead run. The bear was rather
lean and in good trim for running,
and Spence for once had met his
match. and so had the bear. The fiat
extended for half-mile, the course
leading toward another hill, at the
Spence knew very well that when the
bear reached the foot of the hill he
would soon be left far in the rear, and
what he was going to Go toward cap
turing the bear he probably did not |
know himself. unless he could pro- |
woke the bear to turn upon him, in |
which case We would suppose that thu |
chances would have been more tha. |
two 10 ore against him. The small |
stream before mentioned had a bank
five or six feet high on one side. while
the opposite was fat and covered /
with sand and gravel. Up to this
bank they came at a 2:40 gait: the
bear plunged down the bank into the
water, while Spence. dropping MS
gun, leaped over the bear, landing on
the gravel some ten feet beyond. Here
he snatched up round stone which
happened to lie within his reach, and
whirling around. threw it at the bears
head, which was not more than six
feet distant. The stone struck the
end Of his nose, probably the most
part of the animal, when
the bear suddenly turned around,
dropped his head between his fore
legs, and as quick as thought Spence
grabbed him by the long woody hair
on each flank, which caused sudden
flank movement that brought them
both into the middle of the stream,
here about two feet deep. Bruin was
caught at a disadvantage, he had a
heavy incumbrance tugging at his
He tried hard to turn
On his captor, he tried to wiring out
and tried to kick out. but it was no
go, Spence hung to him with the te-
lacity OF forty-pound steel trap.
His success depended wholly on
lis active muscular power in keep
ng the bears rear end we'll raised
lp, which brought his head under wa
er. Then by a mighty effort he sue
-eeded in forcing his head under the
'dge OF the opposite bank, where he
leld on (as he said) until the bear
Kicked his last kick. He always as
serted that if they had crossed the
stream al any other place. that he
would have been unable to have over
eaped the bear. and if that round
tone had not laid precisely where it
lid lay, he could not have stopped !
i'm. ;
Spence lived to hunt with pill-per. ,
ussion priming. also until percussion I
APPS were used, and died when about ,
ixty years Of age, long before breech.
oaders came into use. ss.s.> al 9