The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-07-13

the first Of November, when ne dis
covered bear, but his gun missed
fire. Ordinarily his fiintlock was sure
fire, 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 off. Now bear when
started will almost invariably run up
hill where he has decided advant-
age over his pursuer if he has the
chance; but as they were then on the
summit Of 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 well up in
the rear. At every attempt which he
made to crush in the bears Uranium
with the muzzle end of his rifle, it
would just seem to slip 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 a half-mile, the course
leading toward another hill, at the
foot of which runs a small brook.
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 do 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 the
chances would have been more than
two to one against him. The small
stream before mentioned had bank
five or six feet high on one side, while
the opposite was fiat and covered
with sand and gravel Up to this
bank they came at 240 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
vulnerable 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 Juggling at his
headquarters. 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-
nacity of forty-pound steel trap.
His success depended wholly on
his active muscular power, in keep
ing the bears rear end well raised
up, which brought his head under wa
ter. Then by a mighty effort he sue
ceeded in forcing his head under the
edge of the opposite bank, where he
held on (as he said) until the bear
kicked his last kick. He always as
serted that il they had crossed the
stream at any other place, that he
would have been unable to have over
leaped the bear, and if that round
stone had not laid precisely where it
did lay, he could not have stopped
him.
Spence lived to hunt with pill-per-
cussion printing, also until percussion
caps were used, and died when about
sixty years of age, long before breech-
leaders came into use. uatss' ana