The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-05
HUNTING BEARS IN ALASKA.
Some of the Biggest of the Bruln Fam
ily Found In the Far North.

From the Chicago Post. A.
'~There is good bear hunting on tne
Alaskan peninsula. | got seven grlz-
lies one afternoon, all of them Wlthln
n quarter of a mile and not over nan
an hours time. The smallest OF them
was a 3-year-old, and | should say tney
averaged 1000 pounds. 1t took 10 cart
ridges to bring the seven down.
Grant G. Chase, hunter and pros
hector. who for II years has spent
most of his time in the Alaskan wilds,
crossed his knees in reminiscent RASH
ion at the Sherman house the other
morning and told a few bear stories
on the eve of returning to his favorlte
haunts.
Then for confederation there is the
testimony of Mrs. Chase, who for sew
eral years has shared her husband
life and who has kept diary wherein
is faithfully recorded the number OF
bear, caribou, sea otter and other fur
bearers brought down daily and care
full measurements of the biggest skins.
81 suppose | have killed 500 or 600
bears altogether" continued Mr. Chase.
"Of course, good deal of my time has
been given to some copper properties
| am interested in, or the number
might have been much larger At one
time and 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 A full grown male weighs from
20Oo to $500 pounds. The skin of the
largest fellow | ever killed measured
10 feet 4 inches long and 13 feet 3
inches spread from toenail to toenail.
l can lift as much as the average man,
but I'm telling it straight when l say
that with Mrs. Chase to help me l
couldn't turn that fellow over on his
back to skin him.
Twenty feet is the nearest a bear,
bent on mischief, ever got to me. An
old female, whose cub | had brought
down, came for me one day. and she
was mad. She was 60 or 70 yards
distant and in bunch of alder when
l 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 rap
idly and the shots took effect She
was about six PAGES away when she
dropped.
"Mrs. Chase and l got scare once,
though, in rather ludicrous way.
had three camps in lonely region
where for three years Mrs. Chase
never saw a white woman. | had put
up 'bavraias, or houses, of drift wood,
the only kind available. We were 60
ing from one camp to another when
brought down a bear.
1--WE were in no hurry, so we
stopped, built fire and had some
lunch. After lunch-about an hour
after the shooting-we went down into
bulch where the bear was lying.
Mrs. Chase was carrying an aluminium
teapot. l 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
go up that hillside. The best of it was,
in spite of her haste, she took time to
rescue her teapot. / believe jumped
about 20 feet myself If 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~it's too easy"