Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1908-191?, 1910-02-17
IN GRIZZLIES HtS..
Hunter PurSues Bruin and Sud.
denly Discovers Five Others
Quintet Of Shots Kills All Of Them
Washington Naturalist and MIN.
rod Gives Details Of His
Exciting Encounter.

Spokane Wash u shall never for.
get the first time saw the trail of
grizzly bear. II for no other reason
than that for several years II and It's
maker Interested me. cost me many
exertions. brought me uncounted dis
appointments and, finally, figured In
the most successful encounter ever
had with bears"
William H. Wright. naturalist and
grizzly bear hunter of Spokane. who
has spent a quarter century I'm western
forests studying what he calls the
noblest wild animal Of North Amer.
ica,' made the foregoing observation
ms an introduction TO a story of his
early experiences In the Clearwater
country, southeast Of Spokane, where
he brought down quintet of
grizzlies with 1--WE shots I'm as many
minutes
The veteran. who Is familiar with
every range Of mountains from AlasItn
to Mexico utterly upset lot of pre-
conceived notions as 10 the sort OF
"crittcr' hc found the gri ly to be m
his native Wild, diacrclitlrg. too
groat deal Of the material received
from the old.fash'onod hunter. with
reference 70 the animals vindlctiy
fcrconos3 and marvellous endurance
He nlfo put down the legend that N
grizzly could not he killed With sin
gle shot, attributing this to the lack O.
powder In The guns and ammunpiou
employed In the early days. lie h..
killed scores of bears with eingl,
shots Here Is the story Of one oi
the greatest foats In the Idaho wood
IN his own words:
"Ihe trail IN the canyon was hmm
drcd feet Wide and had been worn ,V
an old md large animal The gromf
ON tho sidos OF the gully was too hsru
TO show his footprints: but. comins
and going. he always seemed to cross
at the same spot. and thought It
would be an easy matter TO watch the
trail and shoot the bear
AS had never succeeded in get
TING In sight OF the bear In the can
yon Itself. | decided to watch the hill.
side and perhaps catch him as he
'csne out to feed: so selected n point
which commanded view OF the whole
hill. and every day from daylight till
dark found me on the lookout. seated
In little clump OF flr trees.
AT last there came rain. It be.
gan In the night and kept up until
about ono o'clock in the afternoon of
the following day, and rained 80 hard
/ AttN In, H.,
ing In the afternoon. thinking that
this might be Just the time the old
bear would select to go berrylng.
braved the weather. When | reached
the frs and took a look at the hill
side. there sat an old grizzly about
a hundred yards above the brink Of
the canyon and 800 yards from me.
buslly engaged in pulling down
branches and eating berries.
Il Immediately began the sneak of
my life. ! did not. even at frat. think
OF walking. simply got down on the
ground and 'snaked' 1t. worked along
slowly. so that the bear had moved
quite distance up the hill before |
finally got within reasonable range.
and even then | kept on until I was
within 60 yards before finally making
up my mind to risk shot
Il then crawled behind n bunch OF
bushes and. without getting up. looked
the ground over to SEQ what the
chances were OF the bears getting
back into the canyon In case | failed
TO drop him. Down there In the can.
yon | had watched 80 long and so
vainly stood the largest bear ever
saw.
81 wanted both. and thought saw
my way TO getting them. | therefore
dropped out of sight. wormed my way