The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-24
LANOOK AND THE BEAR
BY RSE COOLIDGE.

To the east or mount SHASTA lies
the country that was once Lanook's.
There in the days of his youth ne
chased deer and antelope and led his
people against the ~marauding Mo-
docs. The valleys are all fenced and
farmed now, and Lanook in many
respects is "all same white man"
But he loves the old wild Indian
days, loves to BAR again in the LAND
of youth and strength and achieve
ment. The old man was a daily Wis
itor when I lived in the country that
once was his, and time and time
again he would bare his forearm and
knee, show me the deep, livid scars
of a grizzly's teeth, and tell me the
following story.
Long before the whites came he
and Nishka, now many years dead,
were returning from Pitt River with
a big catch of salmon strung on a
pole carried on their shoulders.
Nishka walked ahead. Before them
ran Lanook's little dog clearing the
path Of chipmunks and squirrels.
AS they descended a slope which
.oyerleoks Fall Valley, they heard the
little dog yelp as If in great fear,
and saw him burst from a manzanita
thicket. He was pursued by a giant
grizzly bear.
Nishka fed. Lanook scrambled up
thesnearest tree, scrubby juniper.
The bear followed the dog straight
for the masters perch, until, catch
ing sight of Nishka's buckskin gar
ments fitting through the brush, he
turned and gave him chase.
Lanook, with breath held and eyes
bulging, watched his friends flight.
He was racing like the wind, but it
was as if a toddling baby should at
tempt to outrun his father. The
great slouching brute gained as if the
fleet Indian had been hobbled; in al
most no time he was close upon him.
The poor fellow, in despair, lodged,
barely escaped the beasts claws, and
made a dive into a laurel thicket.
The bear crashed after-then all was
silent.
The silence awoke Lanook. He
leaped from his tree, gathered up
the bow he had thrown. aside before
climbing, and ran to Nishka's rescue.
The bear must have heard the rush
of moccasins on the trail, for as
Lanook drew within close arrow
range, the grizzly emerged from the
thicket and reared on his launches,
barring teeth that were dripping
blood.
Lanook greeted him with two ar
rows, then fed for his tree. The
bear, wounded and furious, chased
him as he had chased his friend,
with the fearful speed no man could
equal. Nevertheless, the Indian
reached his juniper and ran IN it
like a chipmunk, this time retaining
his hold on his bow.
In a pouch hung from his neck
Lanook carried poison made from
black spiders, the fang-sacs of a rat
tlesnake and juice of wild p%arsnips;
and while the grizzly pursued the
bowling cur round the tree, he tipped
three arrows with this death-dealing
ointment.
The juniper which Lanook hal
climbed was the first treet at hard
not at all the one he would have
chosen to escape a grizzly. Stout
branches projected from the very
ground; besides, the tree tapered abb
ruptly, and was not very tall. Round
and round it raced the dog. Finally
he made a quick dash, DATED into
a big patch of deer brush, and there
succeeded in eluding his r.lrs her.
Soon the grizzly came back to the
tree, squatted on his launches, and
sat Observation-Disclosures Indian. Then,
his breath recovered, he stood up
right on his hind legs. and stretched
a terrible, claw-horned paw upward.
And how he did stretch! Lanook
said it was as if the animals limbs
pulled out a hands length at each
joint. He climbed till he feared the
tapering treetop would break.
The bear soon gave up the reach
ing idea and began to climb. In this
he was as awkward as he had been
agile in the chase; but with the lower
branches affording support for hind
and forepaws, it seemed likely that
he could work his way upward.
The great weight of the brute
made the little tree bend alarmingly,
: and when he wriggled and hitched,
both of which he Gid very violently,
Lanook felt like an ant on a spear of
grass whipped by the wind. Hope
left the Indian; in its place came des-
perate resolution. He descended as
far as he dared, fitted n of the
poisoned arrow to his bow, and
waited.
The bear ceased his struggles a
moment, and threw back his head to
look upward. Quick as the snake
strikes, Lanook buried n arrow,
then another, in his shaggy breast,