The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1907-01-30

staiWaFt indian Hn0, lAf p Deth
among the French half-breeds a good
deal. had received from thom the
French name Of Baptlste. odd us
the story as we were huddled around
campfire on the eastern side Of Lake
Winnipeg, from which we and our
dogs had been driven by a bitter
binding. blizzard storm He said:
zone summer long ago, ! was with
large party OF Indians We we're
making a long journey over the rolling
pralries from one place to another
That we might have plenty Of meat 70
eat two Of us were appointed to keep
about two days journey ahead Of the
company to XIII all the game we could
mfhe reason why we kept so far
apart was because we had dogs, and
babies and women In our party, and,
you know, they all make much noise,
SO they would scare the animals far
away
well, we two hunters had kept far
ahead. Some days we had good luck
and killed a great deal, and then other
days we did not kill much. What we
got we cached, SO that the rarty could
easily find 1t by the sign we gave
them when they came along. We al
ways put 1t near the trail for them.
- we could push on, looking for
more.
"One day as we had passed several
valleys and had seen nothing that was
worth our white. we came to the top
lof j pretty large hill and cautiously
looked over. There was sight that
we shall never forget,
fright down before u.s. within gum
shot, was a very large grizzly bear
with two big buffalo bulls. Well for
Us the wind was blowing from them to
Us. They we're very very angry look
ing and were preparing for a big fight.
The buffalos seemed to know that the
bear was an ugly customer, and he
looked as II he did not know how to
manage the two OF them at once.
After a while both of the bulls sud
denly lowered their heads, and to-
gether they charged the bear AS
they rushed at him he quickly rose up
q his hsnnches, and as they closed ir
upon him he seized one Of them by
the head and neck and with sudden
jerk so quickly broke his neck that he
fell down as dead as a stone.
''The older buffalo, which lad
charged at the same time, gave the
bear fearful thrust with his sharp
horns, one of which pierced him be-
tween his ribs, causing an ugly wound,
from which the blood soon began to
flow. The bear. having killed the other
buffalo tried to seize this one also,
but he, having given the bear the ugly
wound. quickly sprang back out Of his
reach. He ran Off for little distance,
but as the bear lid not follow + came
back again. There they stood king
at each other, both very angry, but
both very cautious. AS they kept
moving around it seemed to US as
though the buffalo had so come around
on the windward side Of the bear that
he caught the seems of blood from the
wound. The smell of blood always
excites to fury these animals. and so,
lowering his head he furiously
charged at his wounded yet still saw
age enemy. The bear rose up on his
hind quarters to receive him, and
seizing him as he did the other killed
him on the spot
I'VE saw him go from one buffalo
TO another and smell them both, but
he did not offer to tear or eat either.
We could see that he was very badly
wounded from the way he kept
twiching his side, from which the
blood was running. 1t was az ugly
wound. and he was very sick bear,
but he looked so cross that we were
mot in hurry to let him know any
Hhlng about us.
Imagine, If you can, said Baptiste,
while his eyes flashed at the recollec-
tion Of this royal battle, how excited
we were as we lay there in the long
grass and watched this great battle.
Then we thought: Now If we can
only kill that wounded bear we will
have plenty of meat for the whole
camp-enough to last a long while.
But although we had our guns, we
were none too anxious to begin the
battle with such bear as that one, so
we crouched low and watched him. It
was very fortunate that the wind,
which was quite breeze, blew as It
lid. He never seemed to suspect that
other foes we're near.
After while he went off a little
distance and laid down in the long
grass, which rose up 50 high around
aim that we could not see him. We
waited long for him TO get up, but as
he did not, and we could not stay
there all day. we prepared for a big
fight with him. We put our knives
where we could instantly draw tbcn,
and carefully examined our guns to
see that they were all right. Then
we began TO crawl down through the
grass.
I'VE got very close to him, although
not near enough to see him. Then,
hearing no sound, we made little
noise. bnf he did not stir 81 we sedt