The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1907-06-25
KILLING a
TOUGH BEAR
by HARVEY POOLE.

\ Huu once u HuOu bppoituhit} W
judging Of the amazing toughness and
tenacity OF the grizzly bear. ! was
one Of the party that accompanied
Col William Miner Roberts on his
preliminary survey OF the route OF
the Northern Pacific railway in 1859
Che day eight Of us We're 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 a number of mud holes, or
walIow holes. There was a 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 a 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 a high and
quite steep hill
We had gone up the Hill probably
not more than half mile when the
dog we had with us dashed OH into
the chaparral barking and growing
fercely The bronchos 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 grizs
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 70
cause him to rise to more than hali-
sitting posture.
The grizzly was monstrous speci-
men of his kind, as his footprint mad
indicated. He was more than hun
dred feet away from us, and when ne
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
way that made every man OF as me-
chemically reach for his rifle. 1t
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, and
eight heavy balls went crashing into
various parts Of his enormous body
We had 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 q
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 fear
FIJI one. Ordinarily on smooth
ground we could have run away from
| tho bear without difficulty, but the
| ground we had to cover was mass OF
bowlders 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.
Tso grizzly, however, seemed TO be
at home on this rough area, and II
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 APP
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 sealed
the bowlder and made 1t short cut
| 70 head us off
The consequence was that he
pressed in so closely that If any bron-
cho had stumbled, or met with a sec
| ends undue delay in finding way
| round a bowlder or over confront
ing buck jump, that broncho's rider
would have been scattered to the four
winds Of heaven in less time than IL
takes to speak Of II.
We reached the gully where we had
first discovered the presence of the
bear by his enormous footprint and
| dashed across IL. 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 fired
another round of eight balls into the
bear. He forgot his old wounds al
once. paid no attention TO his new
ones and took up the chase with as
much apparent vigor 40 he had FIRST
started with. We concluded that any
grizzly that could take as much inter
est as that in a fight, after reo~ivina
into his system l6 Of the biggest balls
a Sharp's Efle will carry. was not an
animal TO interfere with any longer
and we sped away before him as fas'
as our willing bronchos would tak'
us.
The bear pressed us close for Owe
half a mile further before he gave any
Indication that our 16 rife balls haG
done him vital harm. Then he begar
70 fall behind and totter and sway II
the brush.
lie followed as in that staggering
way Tor long distance, and then fel