The copper era., 1907-06-13
A BEAR STORY.
Told by a Citizen Of the Blue River
Country.
To the Editor of the Era:

Indeed you have an excellent paper
and we provincials hail with delight
its weekly visits, for through it we
keep in touch with home affairs and
see what is transpiring in the
outside world. But among its many
good articles we never see any bear
stories. Now can see you smile and
hear you say, "Bear stories!" Repu-
table papers have long since
quit 'loading" their readers with
bear and fish stories. =
l am sure this is the attitude of
your worthy paper, were it not your
news gathers could obtain facts from
the Blue river ranchers showing des-
perate encounters with wounded bear
and hair breadth escapes as wild and
thrilling as the adventures of the
big game hunters in Africa.
The bear and cattlemen of the
mountains are sworn enemies, and
whenever and wherever they chance
to meet, the crack of the unerring
rifle deals death or brings on a des-
perate combat.
There is no animal in the world
more dangerous and hard to kill as
an enraged and wounded grizzly bear
and woe unto man or horse who per-
mits his embrace or comes within
reach of his terrible. claws. Many
times bear will put up a stiff fight
after being shot through the vitals.
All of the cowmen in this section
have killed many bear, many have
had narrow escapes and not few
wear the marks of bruins valor.
Johnston, Fritz, Cosper, James,
Thomas,an Forest Hall are all veter-
an bear hunters, and there is scarcely
a time when they came to town but
some of them could tell of recent en-
counters with bear that are true and
would be interesting reading. But
they are so modest and so little given
to boasting of their exploits that the
facts can only be obtained after a
thorough. cross examination.
For example Mr.. Jones could tell of
crawling into a bears den and dis
patching him, while Mr.. Fritz can in
form you how it feels to be caressed
by wounded, enraged silvertip, and
how when he was all but dead a
lucky chance shot broke the bears
jaw, and saved Fritz from a horrible
death.
Awakened one night by the barking
of his dog, Forest Hall got up and
shot bear from tree so close to his
camp that the bear fell on his bed.
But J. H. T. Cosper, better known as
Toll Cosper, bears the reputation of
having killed more bear than any
other man in the Blue country. His
ranch and range lies on and adjacent
to the Blue range, wild and rugged
country, with deep canyons and high
hills whose slopes are covered with
dense thickets of pine and under
brush. Many bears inhabit these
canyons and forests, and Mr.. Cosper's
work frequently brings him in con-
tact with them. He seems to have
an eye for bear. His luck at finding
them is phenomenal, and rarely do
the soft nose bullets from his thirty
forty fail to do deadly work. But
even thirty-forty does not kill
every time, and Mr.. Cosper has had
many narrow escapes with enraged
and wounded bear.
Some years ago when in a bear
fight and while trying to protect a
pursuing him, Mr.. Cosper rode too
near the bear. The desperate
animal unable to stand the fire from
behind, suddenly wheeled, charged
Mr.. Cosper, and leaped upon his
horse, and in another instant would
have torn him to pieces had not a
we'll directed bullet broken his jaw
and sent him Keeling to the ground.
Last fall while riding along lonely
trail on the Blue range huge silver
tip suddenly appeared in the path
not over forty yards away, and in
sisted ON the right-of-way. While
the bear stood sizing him up, Mr..
Cosper quietly dismounted, took de-
liberate aim and began logging"
him. Although the first bullet dealt
him mortal wound, the bear uttered
savage roar and made for his
enemy. His horse took fright and
fed, and Mr.. Cosper thinking discre-
tion the better part of valor, tried to
fly upa pine tree, but ere he could
climb beyond his reach, the bear was
almost upon him and would have
caught him had not the snorting and
plunging of his horse attracted
bruins attention for moment. As
the bear turned to the horse, the hunter
seized the opportunity and while
holding to the tree with one hand
fired his gun with the other, break
ing the BEARS neck. When he de-
scended and examined his gun, there
was only one cartridge left in the
magazine. The bear weighed about
seven hundred pounds.
Unless wounded, a bear rarely
shows fight, but either runs or stands
curiously cycling the hunter, but
- ,rhn