The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-02-16
Spokane Hunter Tells of His
Biggest Bag of Grizzlies Taken
in Five Minutes
AFTER MANY DAYS OF WATCHING
First One Big Fellow Drops, Thon An
other, and Then a Mother Bear and
Woods.

Wright. naturalist and grizzly bear
hunter of Spokane. who has spent a
quarter century in Western forests
studying what be calls the noolest
wild animal Of North America" utter
ly unsets lot OF preconceived notions
as to the sort OF "critter" the griZ.
ely is In his native wild He also puts
down the legend that the grizzly could
not be killed with a single shot at
tributing this to the lack OF power in
the guns and ammunition employed
in the early days.
Here is the story, in his own words,
of one of the greatest feats in the
Idaho woods
"The trail in the canyon was hun
dred feet wide and had been worn by
an old and large animal. For two
years l continued at intervals to see
the big tracks. but not once did | see
the bear. Finally | made up my mind
! would at least set eyes on him, and
] got a man to go with me to look
after the camp and horses so l would
have nothing to do but hunt. We made
camp about two miles from the can
yon, and my first excursion showed me
that my old friend with the big feet
was still in evidence
DAY after DAY passed and brought
no bear, and at last the camptender
while he did not say right out that he
thought l was locoed' intimated it
broadly. Yet examination showed
fresh bear tracks on the old trail al
most every morning. At last there
came a rain. 1t began in the night
and kept up until about one o'clock
IN the afternoon of the following day.
Thinking that this might be just
the time the old bear would select to
go berrying, l decided TO risk it. And.
as luck would have it, when | reached
the hillside there sat an old grizzly
about one hundred yards above the
brink of the canyon and three hun
dred yards from me pulling down
branches and eating berries.
81 crawled behind bunch of bushes
and, without getting up looked the
ground over to see what the chances
were of the bears getting back into
the canyon in case | failed to drop
him. Down there, in the canyon
had watched so lOrg and so vainly,
stood the largest bear it had ever been
my fortune to set eyes upon.
T worked down the hill toward the
big fellow. and as | got better view
of him I knew what had made those
tracks. l had thought nothing about
the size of the first bear Now that
had set my eyes on this big one
thought him entitled to precedence.
yet wanted both and thought
saw my way of getting them. The
first bear seemed to have struck a
bonanza berry patch and was moving
slowly. The big fellow. on the other
hand. was down where the bushes
were pretty well stripped and seemed
TO be working uphill fairly fast.
81 therefore dropped out of sight
wormed my way down hill bit fur
ther, waited till the two bears were
about one hundred yards apart, and
then crept to the top OF a slight ridge
and found myself forty yards from
the big one and sixty from the other
I figured on killing the large bear al
the first shot and then turning on the
other before he had time to take in
"e s'Iua'loh' anu Ie'ieu on 'He
ohu pear sIanuiils up 10 CaAe ioon
DeloFe MAKING loI tue canSon "n'
uerepy sl'Ins me lne 10" seoon"'
tnat ! "ouiu neeo'
LOOK siltlns posi,ion 'Ia' d
forueu me rIsht manu- quaIUeI'ns N.
shot at the Dig reno" ana ielI hah'
quarIeFlhs Snol a' me o'lei' anu ',Ir ,I,.
Nou!u enaole me u act very qI'oAi'
alIer tne Hrs1 sno'' ,
Nheh an IllnsS were al anEe