The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1907-06-19
KILLING a
TOUGH EEAR
BY HARVEY POOLE.

had once a good opportunity Of
judging of the amazing toughness and
tenacity Of the grizzly bear. was
ono OF the party that accompanied
Col. William Miner Roberts on his
preliminary survey of the route of
the Northern Pacific railway in 1869.
One day eight OF us were riding
through the thick chaparral and sage.
brush, about eight miles south of what
Is now Butte City. We came to small
gully. or dry stream bed, In which
there were n number Of mud holes, or
wallow holes. There was sloping
bank on each side of the gully. which
was probably ten feet wide. and on
the right bank. opposite one of the
wallows, we discovered the impression
Of grizzly's forepaw.
From the spread of the claw marks
In the soft earth the bears foot must
have been IA inches or more in length.
and half that in width. The trail led
us away from the gully. up high and
quite steep hill
We had gone up the hill probably
not more than half a mile when the
dog we had with us dashed off into
the chaparral, barking and growing
fiercely. The bfonchos pranced and
bolted. and could scarcely be kept
from turning back down the hill.
A few rods further on, where there
was something of an opening In the
brush. we came in sight of the griz-
ely. He had evidently been lying down
when the dog disturbed him. and had
not considered the presence Of the in.
truder Of sufficient consequence to
cause him to rise to more than a. half.
sitting posture.
The grizzly was a monstrous speci.
men of his kind, as his footprint had
indicated. He was more than q hun.
dred feet away from US, and when he
heard the frightened prancing of our
bronchos IN the brush and their snorts
Of displeasure the old fellow raised up
on his launches and glared at us in q
way that made every man Of us me.
chanically- reach for his rifle. It
seemed to me as If that grizzly stood
ten feet high.
We did not care to daily with him
long, so eight Sharp's rifles were
simultaneously aimed at him. end
eight heavy balls went crashing into
various parts OF his enormous body.
We bad expected to see the bear tum.
BILE to the ground Immediately after
such a volley. But he didn't tumble.
he staggered under the force Of the
shower of lead. but remained in his
upright position. A stream Of blood
spurted from his breast and quickly
crimsoned his shaggy front. With a
tremendous snort Of pain the brute
rushed toward us.
The bronchos turned and dashed at
full speed down the hill. and we
no longer tried to restrain them. The
race down that hillside was a fear
full one. Ordinarily on smooth
ground we could have run away from
the bear without difficulty, but the
ground we had to cover was mass Of
powders, some Of them of immense
size, and thick with treacherous and
dangerous buck jumps" or hollows,
which were a constant menace to the
footing of our horses.
The grizzly, however, seemed to be
at home on this rough area. and 1t
had to be an unusually large bowlder
that turned him from his course. AL.
though he carried eight heavy rifle
balls in his body, he mounted and
clambered over the rocks with ap-
parent ease, and frequently. after we
had twisted and turned through some
contracted pass to get around rock,
we would come almost face to face
with the ugly monster as he scaled
the. bowlder and made 1t a short cut
to head us of.
The consequence was that he
pressed In so closely that II any bron.
cho had stumbled, or met with sec.
ond's undue delay In finding way
round bowlder or over confront
ing buck jump, that, br6nchos rider
would have been scattered to the four
winds Of heaven in less time than 1t
takes to speak of It,
We reached the gully where we had
first discovered the presence Of the
bear by his enormous footprint and
dashed across it. AS we raised the
bank out of the gully some Of US
cast look behind and saw that the
| grizzly had stopped on the first bank,
and was licking his wounds, the pain
of which had probably by that time
| become unbearable.
We stopped our horses and fred
another round of eight balls into the
bear. He forgot his old wounds at
once, paid no attention to his new
ones, and took up the chase with as
much apparent vigor as he had first
started with. We concluded that any
| grizzly that could take as much inter-
est as that "a fight, after receiving
into his system 10 of the biggest balls
a Sharp's rifle will carry. was not an
,animal to interfere with any longer,
and we sped away before him as fast
as our willing bronchos would take
| us.
/