Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-05-15
HUNTING BEARS n ALASKA.
som. of the nlxse.. of pr.,. Fam

Some of the DiSsest of Brain FAM
lily Found in Far North.
"There Is good bear hunting On the
Alaskan peninsula. l got sever griz-
lilies one afternoon, all of them within
a quarter of a mile and not owe half
an hours time. The smallest of them
was a 3~-year-old, and I should say they
averaged 1000 pounds. 1t took thir-
teen cartridges to bring the even
down"
Grant G. Chase, hunter n prospec-
tor, who for eleven years has spent
most of his time In the Alaskan wilds,
crossed his knees In reminiscent fash
ion at the Sherman House and told a
few bear stories on the eve OF returning
to his favorite haunts.
Then for confederation there is the
testimony of Mrs. Chase, who for sew
eral years has shared her husbands
life, and who has kept a diary where
In is faithfully recorded the number OF
bear, caribou, sea otter and other fur
bearers brought down daily, and care
full measurement of the biggest skins.
#"l suDlDCoS L auuNS AiliSu w " "
bears altogether" continued Mr.. Chase.
"Of course, u good deal of my time has
been given to one copper properties l
am interested in or the number might
have been much larger. At one time
n another | have hunted bear pretty
much all through the Rockies, but
there isn't another place to equal the
Alaskan peninsula.
Big? Well, I'll tell you. Those
bears up there are the largest in the
world. \ full grown male weighs from
1000 TO $500 pounds. The skin of the
largest fellow l ever killed measured
10 feet 4 inches long and 10 feet 3
inches spread from toeuail to toenail.
| can lift as much as the average man,
but I'm telling it straight when l say
that with Mrs. Chase to help me
eouldn'1 surn that fellow over on his
back to kin him.
Twenty feet is the nearest a bear
bent on mischief ever got to me. An
old female whose cub l a brought
down, came for me II day and she
was mad. She was sixty or seventy
yards distant and in a bunch Of alder
when I took my first shot at her. She
got up and came out in the clearing,
and then she saw me and came for me
in earnest. / worked my gun pretty
rapidly and the shots took effect. She
was about six PAGES away when she
dropped.
"Mrs. Chase and / got a scare once,
though, in rather a ludicrous way. l
had shree camps in a lonely region,
where for three years Mrs. Chase never
saw a white woman. / had to put up
'bavaraias,' or houses of drift wood,
the only kind available. We were go
ing from one camp to another when 4
brought down a bear.
.We were in no hurry, SO we stopped,
built a fir and had some lunch. After
lunch-about an hour after the shoot
ing-we went down into a gulch where
the bear was lying. Mrs. Chase was
carrying an aluminium teapot. ! got
her to help me turn the bear over, and
I was about to remove his hide when
the big fellow suddenly came to life.
you should have seen Mrs. Chase
60 up that hillside. The best Of 1t was,
in spite Of her haste, she toak time to
rescue her teapot. I believe I jumped
about twenty feet myself. II that
bear had been in shape to do damage
there might have been some trouble
but he wasn't. As a general thing
there isn't much adventure-its too
easy.''-Chicago Post.